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N9 29 25CtS. 


LOVELL’S 

WESTMINSTER 

SERIES 


Entered at the Post Office^ New York^ as second class matter. 


THE 

:anadian senator 


BY 

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I 





CHRISTOPHER OAKES 


zAuthorin^ed Edition 



NEW YORK 



UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY, 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

150 Worth St., cor. Mission Place 

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $12.00. 


JANUARY 1, 1891. 



BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT WITH THE AUTHORS. 


LOVELL’S 

Westminster Series. 


1. Her Last Throw. By “ The Duchess” - - 25 

2. The Moment After. By Robert Buchanan - 25 

3. The Case of Gen’l Ople and Lady Camper. By 

George Meredith 25 

4. The Story of the Gadsbys. By Rudyard 

Kipling _ . . . - - 25 

6 . The Doctor s Secret. By Rita ... 25 

6. The Tale of Chloe. By George Meredith - 25 

7. The Old Courtyard. By Katherine S. Macquoid 25 

8. Frances Kane’s Fortune. By L. T. Meade - 25 

9. Passion the Playthino. By R. Murray Gilchrist, 25 

10. City and Suburban. By Florence Warden • 25 

11. A Romance of the WTre. By M. Betham- 

Edwards - - - - - r - 25 

12. The Havoc of a Smile. By L. B. Walford - 25 

13. The Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau. By Canon 

Farrar - - - - - 25 

14. A Black Business. By Hawley Smart - 25 

15. Missing — A Young Girl.. By Florence Warden 25 

16. Le Beau Sabreur. By Annie Thomas - - 25 

17. A Marriage at Bea. By H. Clark Russell - 25 

18. A Very Young Couple. By B. L. Farjeon - 25 

19. He Went for a Soldier. By John Strange 

Winter 25 

20. A Bride from the Bush. By a new writer - 25 

21. A Laggard in Love. By Jeanie Gwynne Bettany 25 

22. Work While Ye Have the Light. By Count 

Lyof Tolstoi 25 

23. Under the Deodars. By Rudyard Kipling - 25 

24. Merry, Merry Boys. By B. L. Farjeon - . 25 

25. The Light that Failed. By Rudyard Kipling 25 

Any of the above sent postpaid, on receipt of price, by the publishers. 
UNITED STATES BOOK CO.TffPANY, 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

142 TO 160 WORTH STREET, NEW YORK- 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR 


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THE 


CANADIAN SENATOR 



CHRISTOPHER OAKES 

AN 



<iAuthori7^ed Edition 




ur OOi\,Q ^ 

CQ^yRlGHT \ 

APii 9 IB9i 

sj i Iw 


NEW YORK 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY. 

150 WORTH ST., COR. MISSION PLACE 


Q 


('OI’YRIOHT, 1891, 

BY 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY. 


The; Canadian .^DnaTor, 


CHAPTER I. 

1^i:SrWARD BOUND. 

A GROUP of tour people sat on the foredeck of one of the 
steamships of the Canadian Pacific Lake Superior Line as 
she ploughed her way westward on a certain beautiful 
evening in July. 

The group consisted of two ladies and two gentlemen. 
'Tfie elder of the ladies would have been termed a baiid- 
su?flae woman by two out of every three people who might 
observe her, albeit her air and appearance of imperious 
self-confidence would at first sight probably repel rather 
than attract the majority of persons. Nevertheless, she 
was a person whom few would pass by without observing. 
Her looks and manner commanded attention and seeivied to 
demand deference, unless from those whom she was 
especially desirous of propitiating. Her prominent nose 
/ind chin in a face less full and well rounded, and were 
they separated by smaller and less perfect rows of teeth, 
would have suggested an early subsidence into a coun- 
renance of that variety known as the “ nutcracker.” 
Firmly compressed lips intensified the appearance of con- 
scious power. Her figure was generous in outline, and her 
hair plentifully streaked with grey. Her complexion was 
dark. Her age, which she could be trusted to keep to 


4 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


herself, would probably be placed by an impartial judge 
at about six-and-forty. A slender gold watch guard 
reaching from throat to waist, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses 
with which she toyed, with more than one ring upon her 
plump fingers, evidenced a taste for jewellery. The other 
lady was a girl just grown to womanhood Her face was 
oval in shape, her complexion light and clear ; her eyes 
large and of hazel tint : her hair, of which she had a pro- 
fusion, was dark brown. Her mouth denoted sweet tem- 
per and a loving disposition. Her figure, though at 
present enveloped in a shawl to protect her from the lake 
breeze, was evidently somew^hat slender. The young man 
who sat by her side was obviously much engrossed by the 
contemplation of the younger lady. He helped her adjust 
the shawl more securely over her shoulder when it threat- 
ened to slip down, and endeavored in a dozen ways to 
minister to her comfort. He was a good-looking young 
fellow of twenty -five or thereabouts, blue-eyed and curly- 
haired, with an open and generous countenance and that 
appearance of youthful activity which gave promise of 
lasting into and even beyond middle age. 

The fourth member of the group was a short stout 
gentleman of sixty or thereabouts, who sat upon a camp 
stool, a newspaper spread across his knees, and a dark 
travelling cap set somewhat jauntily on his head, in such 
a way, however, as to cover the balder portion and allow 
the grey locks, which remained in considerable profusion 
on the back and sides of his round head, to become the 
sport of the playful breeze. His beard was short and 
grizzled ; his features irregular, the nose small and slightly 
tilted upward ; mouth rather large, the under jaw protrud- 
ing somewhat beyond its fellow, though perhaps not 
sufficiently to entitle him to be termed “ under hung,” 
His grey eyes twinkled at the elder lady, who sat facing 
him, evidently bent upon making herself agreeable — the 
young folks meanwhile taking advantage of the preoccu- 
pation of the elders with one another, to hang their heads 
over the bulwarks and indulge in a few tender side glances 
and a few whispered words. The water was so calm — 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


5 


and the evening so beautiful, that this seemed quite satis- 
fying enough for them, and they looked out to the west, 
where the great red sun was preparing to sink out of 
sight, with contentment upon their youthful faces — while 
their elders chatted on, apparently each engrossed with 
the priceless thoughts which the other was uttering. If 
the old gentleman appeared a little less self-forgetful than 
his companion, possibly it was due to his being less ac- 
complished in the art of self-forgetfulness, and less gifted 
with the power to express at will a deferential interest by 
looks, than she. Perhaps the bump of approbation which 
shoved ■ the travelling cap to an ominous height at the 
apex of his skull had something to do with it. At any 
rate, the deference of the handsome lady was plainly not 
disagreeable to him, and he showed it by a readiness to be 
led off on almost any sort of intellectual excursion for 
which she might express a taste. 

“ And you have really never visited the Northwest be- 
fore, Mr. Watkins,” said the lady during a pause in the 
conversation, but not in a tone of disappointment ; rather, 
indeed, as if the thought that they should make their 
debut in the great world beyond Superior together were a 
new source of gratification to her, “ and you a Senator, 
too,” she added, as though the principal duty of persons of 
that exalted estate consisted in their perambulating the 
great lone land from the great lakes to the Pacific at all 
seasons. 

The Senator seized the opportunity to pay a compli- 
ment with great adroitness, as he replied, “ Ah, Mrs. Fitz- 
grace, but see what I have gained in companionship by 
waiting until now !” . Then perceiving that his playful 
compliment was not displeasing to the lady, he decided 
with the promptness of a diplomatist not to imperil the 
good impression he had created by a further sally just 
then, but resumed rather the senatorial dignity as he 
continued, ‘‘ The fact is I have been over a great part of 
Europe. I have even touched Asia and Africa.” He 
stretched forth his hand as if to repeat the touch. “I 
know almost every nook and cranny of our own maritime 


6 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


provinces — my native heath as it were. I know Quebec 
and Ontario, too, pretty well ; but as yet my knowledge of 
the Northwest and British Columbia is derived from the 
blue books, the evidence given in committees, speeches and 
the newspapers. But you are right, my dear Mrs. Fitz- 
grace, in supposing that we Senators like to see things for 
ourselves, and last session I determined that, after a run 
home for a few weeks, I would take a holiday trip to the 
Northwest — not exactly a holiday trip either, though it 
has seemed more like one since your brother introduced us 
at Owen Sound, and put you in my charge,” said the 
Senator, with a courtly inclination of the head, ‘‘ but I am 
determined to thoroughly do the Northwest. We have 
heard so much about its boundless resources and fertility. 
Those fellows in the Commons are eternally prating about it. 
We even hear talk now of a vast Mackenzie Biver basin of 
exhaustless wealth, which I should like to test, too, by the 
light of actual experience.” He held up his eye-glasses — 
for he, too, had a pair with even heavier golden rims, than 
those of Mrs. Fitzgrace — and waved them slowly over an 
imaginary panorama of the Mackenzie Biver basin. “ Then 
there’s the deeply interesting Indian question. The * old 
man ’ thinks he knows all about it, but I’m inclined to 
think he doesn’t.” By the ‘‘ old man ” he was understood 
to refer, in the slang of the day, to a certain exalted per- 
sonage then at the head of affairs in Canada. 

“ I thought Sir J ohn knew all about the Indians — that 
he had an Indian title himself — ‘ Old To-morrow,’ isn’t it ?” 
asked Mrs. Fitzgrace. 

“ I believe some disgruntled warrior^ gave him that title 
not underservedly perhaps — and t*o tell the truth John 
A. is immensely tickled with it. I want |to investigate 
their grievances for myself madam — and I want to 
make an inspection of the C. P. B. There is a 
big )aw suit looming up between the company and 
the government, which threatens to swa^'ow up some 
millions, if not put a stop to in time. I should like just to 
see whether the line is what it is said to be, that is, the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 7 

Pacific side. If I run over it I can tell/’ added the Senator, 
with confidence. 

“ Ah, how I should like to go on to Victoria, Senator !” 
exclaimed Mrs. Fitzgrace with enthusiasm. 

“ And why shouldn’t you ?” 

A glance at the young couple leaning over the bulwarks 
and a shake of the head with a sigh expressive of resign- 
ation, was the only reply vouchsafed. 

Mr. Watkins,” the lady at length said, '' it is becoming 
a little chilly and if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll get a 
shawl from my state-room,” She arose as she spoke as did 
also the Senator, who offered gallantly to accompany her. 

They passed through the forward saloon where many 
late diners were still enjoying the excellent six o’clock 
dinner being served, contrary to the usual custom of lake 
steamers, upon separate tables, by prompt attendants. Mrs. 
Fitzgrace’s state-room, which she occupied jointly with her 
neice whom she had just left, was in the after part of the 
ship. Having reached the after saloon, she apparently 
changed her mind and seating herself on a sofa she looked 
at the Senator, as if to invite him to a seat beside her, of 
which he forthwith availed himself. 

“ Mr. Watkins,” she said, I have a grave responsibility 
resting upon my shoulders.” The Senator glanced at these 
ample shoulders admiringly. His thoughts were still on 
the problems of the North-West which he was about to 
solve for the public benefit. But he intimated by his look 
that he could spare thought for the troubles of so interest- 
ing a person, and so good a listener, as the widowed sister 
of his friend Mr. Southcote, had proved herself to be. 
“ You have no doubt, guessed something of the relations 
of my neice and young Rashfellow,” she continued. 
The Senator had observed certain unequivocal symptoms 
in both of a malady to which he himself had not 
been a stranger in his youth, and he nodded an assent, “ a 
little spooney ” he said. 

“ They have known one another since childhood, and a 
sort of attachment was formed at a time when they both 
ought to have been thinking of their school books, or their 


8 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


playthings. Arthur never was particularly promising, but 
his father was a neighbor and friend of my brother Wil- 
liam’s, and so he let the intimacy continue, even after the 
death of the lad’s father,” — she spoke as if that event 
should have been the signal for the termination of friendly 
relations between the two families — " and a sort of quasi 
engagement sprang up between these young people, though 
Arthur’s father had little enough to leave to his widow 
and family. The young fellow had tried various things, 
law, business and other things ; and then, thinking to 
make his fortune at once, he went to Winnipeg, and was 
caught in the ‘ boom ’ and sank most of what his father had 
left him. He managed to save a farm of some sort out of 
tl^ wreck, and says he has made a home there which, of 
course, he thinks Gertrude should share with him. Of 
course William would have weakly yielded if I had not 
brought him to some sense of his duty. I persuaded him 
to let me accompany my neice on a trip to the north-west 
to show her what sort of a life will be in store for her if 
she persists in her love-sick fancy. But for me this would 
probably have been their wedding trip. Yet I hope and 
trust I shall be able to bring her back cured of her fancy 
— a girl of her appearance and accomplishments would be 
just thrown away, on the prairies, milking cows and 
tending chickens — don’t you think so ?” and before the 
Senator could reply, she went on — " I’m sure you’ll agree 
with me, Mr. Watkins, and I feel that you will give me 
all the assistance in your power.” 

Now, while the Indian problem, the railway question, 
and the Mackenzie river basin possessed great attractions 
for the Senator, he was by no means clear that this new 
mission, of assisting to sever two hearts which seemed to 
be beating in dangerous unison, was quite so well suited to 
his tastes. Yet, when Mr. Southcote, with whom he had 
been acquainted for many years, as the head of a respec- 
table Toronto firm of lawyers, had introduced him to his 
sister on the wharf, and had put her partly in his charge, 
he had not given him the impression that she was a per- 
son who would require much looking after. On the con- 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


9 


trary, the brother addressed her in a manner which indi- 
cated that she possessed and was worthy of his confidence. 
When the father parted with the daughter, too, the Sena- 
tor, while he observed a tear in his eye, had heard him 
enjoin her to be “ guided by her aunt in everything,” and 
lastly, he noticed that his manner to the young man, while 
kindly, had been by no means effusive. Besides all this, 
it must be confessed that the Senator was beginning to 
admire the handsome widow, not only for her appearance, 
but as a person of judgment and discernment — evidenced 
by the way in which she had received the information on 
public matters which he had already seen fit to . impart. 
As he had much more yet to impart, and as he began to 
feel that the companionship of an intelligent lady of such 
excellent judgment would be of great advantage to him 
in his investigations, — an advantage which he could no 
longer count upon, if he should show sympathy with the 
cause of these misguided young people, — Mr. Watkins 
readily promised such assistance as he could render. Mrs. 
Fitzgrace had evidently counted upon this. She rewarded 
him with one of her sweetest smiles and a look of grati- 
tude, and then,^remarking that it was getting a little late 
for her neice to remain on deck in the evening air, 
she went in quest of her — the Senator following once 
more. 

The young people had meantime been enjoying the 
beauties of the evening and each other’s society on the 
foredeck. As they looked out over the blue waters at the 
great red disc sinking in the west, their hearts were full, 
though they said but little. Arthur tried to get hold of a 
small hand beneath the shawl, but the young lady was 
conscious of the other passengers now gathered on the deck 
and coyly withdrew it out of his reach. Then he looked 
so reproachful that she had to smile at him, though there 
was something very like a tear in her eye. 

“ Doesn’t it seem as if the sun were going down for the 
last time — so red and angry, too ?” she presently asked. 

“ Not a bit of it,” replied the more hopeful youth, “ wait 


10 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


till you see him rising on the prairie, Gertie ! That’s a 
sight worth seeing !” 

** And when shall I see prairie ?” 

" Oh, on Saturday when we reach Winnipeg, but you 
must leave Winnipeg behind before you see the real thiiag 
— the mile upon mile of growing crops bowing before the 
breeze. Wait till we reach the Portage, and I drive you 
out to my place and you see a sunrise and a sunset there, 
before you form an opinion of the prairie, — and I can show 
you as nice a piece of wheat as you’ll see in the whole 
Northwest, I’ll be bound. And right glad will Joggins 
and his wife and Sport, — my clog you know — be to see 
you, Gertie, I’ll answer for that.” The young man rattled 
on while the maiden looked at him and then out over the 
waters, wistfully. It was growing darker now, and the 
young man was once more searching for the truant hand, 
with some chance of success, when the voice of her aunt 
broke the pleasant spell. 

“Gertrude,” she said, “it is growing too chilly, my 
dear, for you to sit longer on deck, I think. Wont you 
come in and play something for Mr. Watkins. I’m sure he 
would like to hear you.” 

The Senator of course had to support this proposition 
with his best grace, and Miss Southcote dutifully arose and 
proceeded with her aunt to the saloon, while Arthur with 
a feeling of being left out in the cold, lit a cigar and 
lounged about the deck. It was not long however before 
he found himself on the after deck, looking in at the cabin 
windows, his eyes rivetted on the piano and the young 
lady who was playing, now a dreamy waltz, now a snatch 
of some song and again one of Chopin’s exquisite waltzes, 
while Mrs. Fitzgrace looked on, smiling approval from an 
armchair, and the Senator sat marking time very badly on 
the arm of the sofa on which he lolled. The electric lights 
were now burning and the passengers were gathering in 
the saloon, as passengers do upon such occasions, the elders 
seating themselves quietly to hear what was going for- 
ward, the novel readers settling themselves in the most 
advantageous positions to take advantage of the light, 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


11 


while some of the younger people approached the piano 
turned over the music which lay upon it, and looked 
admiringly at Miss Southcote as she played. One young 
lady ventured to ask Gertrude if she sang, and on learning 
that she sang “ a little ” became so importunate for a song 
that the fair performer glanced at her aunt and receiving 
an encouraging nod from Mrs. Fitzgrace, who seemed in 
high good humor this evening, she began a little ballad, 
which she knew that Arthur was fond of and which soon 
brought that young gentleman from his retreat. She had 
a sweet and cultivated, though not a strong voice, which 
went straight to the heart of the hearer, and one hearer 
at least it appealed to that night as he thought it never had 
before. The young lady who had asked for the song was 
next emboldened to suggest a chorus, on finding a book of 
part songs on the piano, and soon a choir was in process of 
formation, Arthur, who possessed a fine robust tenor, form- 
ing one of the group who were 'soon trolling forth “ Way 
down upon the Swanee river ” and other familiar melodies, 
with the general approval of the assembled passengers. 
The scene is however too familiar to all travellers by 
steamboat to bear reproduction in print and we may there- 
fore more profitably employ our time by affording the 
reader some further information regarding the particuular 
group of travellers, whose company he or she may be 
destined to keep, beyond the shores of the lakes. 

Mrs. Fitzgrace had truly said that the attachment be- 
tween her neice and Arthur Rashfellow was one which 
had had its beginning in early youth. The two young 
people could not remember a time when they had not 
known one another. They had played together, walked, 
boated, driven and ridden together, not only as children 
but in the most impressionable years of youth. They 
had picniced on the banks of the Humber, sailed across 
the bay, climbed the Rosedale ravines and the heights 
of Castle Frank, with many a merry party, but 
always managing to pass a good share of the time to- 
gether. They had built snow giants, they had skated and 
tobogganed in each other’s society, and Arthur’s toboggan 


12 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


was reserved for Gertrude^s use, while that he should 
fasten her skates seemed as natural as that he should place 
her in his skiff in those happy days in Muskoka when they 
had varied the perpetual holiday by making a special 
holiday expedition to some quiet spot for a picnic. 
Then came the time when Arthur had left Upper Canada 
College, and at his father’s request had attempted the 
study, of the law with Mr. Southcote. Mr. Rashfellow 
had, indeed, tried to induce Arthur to enter one of the 
Universities, but the young fellow was not ©f a studious 
turn. He had been a good deal “ spoiled,” being the 
eldest child, and though of a naturally kind and generous 
disposition, he chafed under restraint, and generally had 
his own way. As a sort of compromise with his father, 
who somewhat overrated his abilities, he tried law, but 
made so manifest a failure of it that Mr. Northcote was 
constrained to tell his friend and neighbor that he did not 
think the young man would make a successful lawyer, 
and Arthur was therefore transferred to the merchant’s 
warehouse of his father’s firm. It was at this time that 
Mr. Southcote began to think that Gertrude and Arthur 
should have outgrown the attachment which he had ob- 
served without any special misgiving in their earlier days. 
He discussed the matter with his wife, a weakly and 
amiable woman, who had three other children to engage 
her attention, but nothing definite came of this conference. 
He had spoken, also, to Arthur’s father on the subject, and 
the latter agreed with him that his son was not likely to 
be able to make and maintain a happy home for the young 
lady. His reckless disposition gave no promise of his 
acquiring a competency for himself, and though his father 
enjoyed a good income, he had two daughters and a couple 
of young boys to provide for besides Arthur. Then came 
Mr. Rashfellow ’s sudden death before Arthur had develop- 
ed sufiicient business tastes or habits to enable him to take 
his father’s place or, indeed, any place other than that of 
a junior clerk in the father’s firm. The remaining part- 
ners bought out the father’s interest, and this, with his 
life insurance, formed a fund sufficient to enable the family 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


13 


to live a life of quiet respectibility. A sum sufficient to 
enable him to start in life had shortly before been left 
Arthur by an uncle, the brother of his mother, and with 
this he determined to seek his fortune in the north-west in 
the early part of the year 1882. 

It must not be supposed that Arthur had up to this 
time changed his purpose of carrying out the programme 
which he and Gertrude had for some years planned, in boy 
and girl fashion, of coming some day as a rich man to her 
father’s door to claim her as his bride. Now that his 
father had died and the realities of life stared him more 
sternly in the face, he thought the time for definite action 
had come. His father had quietly hinted that for a young 
man, with no special prospects, to be dangling after a young 
lady, who might in the natural course of things do better, 
was not only unfair to her and her parents, who had 
shown him so much kindness, but was handicapping his 
own career, as well. Mr. Southcote, too, had hinted more 
than once to his daughter that childish preferences 
and fancies should now be dismissed, and only after a 
repetition of these hints did he begin to realize how seri- 
ous the preference and fancy to which he referred had 
become. In fact, the young people had plighted their 
troth unknown to their elders, and had more than once 
sworn eternal constancy. And now when the time for 
action arrived Arthur was full of hope and energy, and 
Gertrude was, if not quite so confident of a speedy realiza- 
tion of their dreams, at least willing to wait patiently for 
his return. 

During Arthur’s absence in the north-west, Mrs. Fitz- 
grace took up her residence with her brother, William 
Southcote. She had in her younger days married a cer- 
tain well-connected and dashing young Englishman, who 
soon proved, however, to be an utterly useless and even 
burdensome mate. Having speedily run through the 
means he had inherited, he developed a propensity for 
sponging on his friends and connections until his name be- 
came a byword among his acquaintances for meanness and 
general uselessness. They said it should be changed from 


14 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Fitz to Dis-grsice. He had moreover early in life acquired 
a taste for drinking, and when circumstances became such 
that Canadian whisky became his chief beverage, the 
development of this propensity for drink became more and 
more rapid. Meanwhile from the dashing swell of his 
bridegroom days he had become the slouching tippler who 
was not ashamed to live upon the bounty of his wife or 
her relations. Fortunately his wife was made of stronger 
stuff, and struggled with desperate efforts to keep up 
appearances. She had more pride than he, and could not 
permanently burden her brother with the support of her 
husband as well as herself, so that she, the once fashionable 
Mrs. Fitzgrace, was at length forced — let me whisper gently 
reader — to take boarders, whose boots, it was said, the 
once dashing Fitzgrace polished — and polished very badly 
the boarders asserted — in the back kitchen, as his sole and 
only contribution to the household support. Of course it 
was a fashionable boarding house, for Mrs. Fitzgrace 
would do nothing which was not fashionable. Never- 
theless that she chafed under the ignoble yoke 
of even a fashionable boarding-house keeper, will 
hardly surprise the reader who has already had, let us 
hope, some slight insight into her character. She had had 
two daughters, one of whom died in girlhood, the other 
married one of the boarders, who took her shortly after to 
New Zealand. Then at length, the once dashing, but now 
useless, Fitzgrace having become less and less proficient as 
shoe polisher and more and more saturated with whiskey 
suddenly shuffled out of the world and left his widow a 
free woman, with a small income from the insurance on his 
life which she had been careful to keep paid up until his 
death. She gave up her house, and, on invitation of her 
brother, whose wife was becoming, through ill health, in- 
capable of performing all the duties of mistress of a large 
household, Mrs. Fitzgrace, or Aunt Caroline, as she was 
called there, became one of the Southcote household. 

Meantime Arthur had struck Winnipeg and the boom ” 
which was then in full blast there. He speedily invested his 
all, mostly in town lots and on narrow margins. The 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


15 


richest man was apparently he who bought at the highest 
figure and paid the least money down — spreading his 
capital over as long and narrow a margin of investment as 
possible. So Arthur invested right and left at top figures, 
putting up almost his entire capital in first [payments and 
then retired to the club and drank champagne with other 
millionaires who daily counted their riches (in town lots) 
over the sparkling wine. But it must not be supposed that 
he forgot his first love in the hour of his great prosperity 
— not he. In the early spring he took train for Toronto, 
loading himself with presents at St. Paul and Chicago en 
route, and arrived at her old home elated with success and 
feeling that his troubles were now over and that he had 
but to walk up to the Southcote mansion in the role of 
conquering hero and carry off his prize. Unfortunately 
Aunt Caroline was now installed there. She had reaped 
the bitter fruit of a rash marriage herself and felt impelled 
to protect her neice from a like experience. She took no 
stock in the young man’s reputed wealth and told him so. 
The cautious Mn Southcote too, counselled a little delay, 
just to see now the investments might turn out. Then 
came the news of disastrous floods at Winnipeg and many 
of Arthur’s purchases disappeared under several feet of 
water. He still hoped on, however. The water would go 
down and the prices would go up — what was one, two or 
even five hundred dollars a foot for eligible lots in the 
Chicago of the Canadian north-west ? But though the 
waters subsided the boom subsided too and the 
numerous land agents with whom Arthur’s pur- 
chases were left on sale, reported no sales and a lull in the 
market. Then came the fatal day of second payments. 
Most of the vendors demanded prompt payment and poor 
Arthur was at the end of his rope In vain he begged 
for time, — his wealth began to melt away like snow 
before the sun. Aunt Caroline looked more and more 
obdurate, Mr. Southcote looked grave. The young man 
became desperate, and finally almost demanded the hand 
of Gertrude, who was tearful and woe-begone, of her 
father. As he had now worse prospects than ever, Mr. 


16 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Southcote naturally demurred, and the young man went 
off again in a huff to Winnipeg to see what could be done 
with his now fast tottering fortunes. Fortunately he 
had bought and paid the greater part of the purchase 
money of a half section of land near Portage la Prairie, 
and thither, after a brief and unsatisfactory visit to 
the scene of his unfortunate ventures in Winnipeg, he 
betook himself. Driven at last to earnest endeavors, he 
set to work as a farmer, and after a few years hard toil, 
he had at length the satisfaction, after committing m‘^ny 
blunders and enduring many hardships, with much heroic 
determination, of finding himself in the possession of a 
tolerably good farm, free of debt and with a house and 
outbuildings, which, if not luxurious, were at least habit- 
able, and such as his means and the circumstances of the 
country would allow. 

Once more Arthur returned to his native city and 
visited his home. His sisters were now almost young 
ladies, his brothers grown to sturdy youths. He was not 
quite so full of confidence as on the occasion of his former 
visit, and he therefore spent a day or two with his own 
people, taking a daily stroll on King street in hope of 
meeting Gertrude. On the third day, however, he walked 
boldly over to the Southcotes, where he was received by 
Mrs. Fitzgrace, but, alas, with no greater enthusiasm than 
on the occasion of his former visit. In fact this lady 
seemed determined to keep him at a distance, or at least 
to ignore his former claims as the suitor of her niece. 
Gertrude’s manner it is true had lost none of its sweetness, 
and he read in her eye as soon as she bent it upon him, 
that she still loved him. She was now a woman, however, 
and a certain staid composure of manner had taken the 
place of her former girlish confidence and reliance upon her 
lover. A short time sufficed to satisfy him that he still 
possessed her heart, although it was evident that that, by no 
means secured to him the possession of her hand. He lost 
no time now in securing an interview with Mr. Southcote 
and pressed his suit with so much eloquence and persistence 
that it is doubtful whether the father’s consent would not 


THE CANADIAN SENATOH. 


17 


have been forthcoming, were it not for Aunt Caroline. 
When the young man's fervor had well nigh melted the 
heart of the lawyer, it became hardened under the inexor- 
able logic of Mrs. Fitzgrace. When he ventured to suggest 
the danger of the young people solving the difficulty after 
the maUneJ of rash and impetuous youth, without regard 
to their elder’s wishes, if his consent were withheld, she 
promptly suggested that he should forbid the young man 
the house. But he positively refused thus to treat the son 
of his former friend, whom he admired for his constancy 
if for nothing else. Arthur had well nigh won his point 
at last. The father had long seen that his daughter was 
not happy and became almost convinced that a union with 
the lover of her youth was her only chance of happiness. 
When he came home and told his sister of his latest inter- 
view with Arthur and his resolve to let the young people 
have their way, Mrs. Fitzgrace had merely exclaimed, 
“ Stuff and nonsense Willian#, let me take Gertrude to the 
north-west and show her what her future life there would 
be, and if she isn’t cured then, why they can be married 
then and there.” She had no doubt however of being able 
to effect her cure. 


CHAPTER IL 

THE SAULT. 

On the morning following the incidents referred to in the 
preceding chapter Mrs. Fitzgrace, her neice, the Senator 
and Arthur again sat on the foredeck enjoying the varied 
and beautiful scenery of the St. Mary river. The day was 
a hot one and the shady places were in demand. How 
cool and refreshing the dense underbrush looked on the 
shores of the islands among which they picked their way. 
The good ship glided onward turning this way and that as 
she ascended the noble stream, the travellers feasting their 
eyes upon the panorama presented on either side. Ever 
and anon as they passed a procession of laden vessels being 


18 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


towed down stream, would handkerchiefs flutter in the air 
to greet the groups of passing mariners or an occasional 
female cook as she stood at the cabin door of her ship, tak- 
ing a breath of fresh air and a glance at the passers by. A 
steamer would now and again pass and an exchange of 
handkerchief greetings between the east and west bound 
passengers would be kept up vigorously by the younger 
folk — simultaneously with an exchange of steam whistle 
greetings by the boats themselves. 

“ The Tliousand Islands over again,” said the Senator. 
He turned to Gertrude as he spoke. He had scarcely ex- 
changed a word with the younger lady as yet, so devoted 
had been his attentions to her aunt. It had occurred to 
him possibly that he should honor the neice with a little 
conversation. “You gave us some beautiful music last 
evening Miss Southcote,” he said. So beautiful was it that it 
had lulled him to sleep in the end, as Mrs. Fitzgrace had 
observed. 

My music is all in my trunk, and I had to sing from 
memory, just my old hackneyed songs, and the part songs 
in the ship’s book were even more hackneyed,^ I fear.” 

“ You are fond of music ?” queried the Senator. 

“ Oh, dear, yes,” replied the young lady, with more ani- 
mation than she had yet shown, “ of course I am. Who can 
fail to be ? To be sure I know there are people who care 
nothing for music — who can’t tell one air from another. I 
always feel for them — much as I do for a deformed person, 
or one who has to go through life wanting an arm or a 
leg — they miss so much. They are denied one of the 
greatest pleasures in life.” 

Now, though Mr. Watkins could distinguish “ God save 
the Queen ” from “ Yankee Doodle,” he could not go much 
further in musical discrimination. Yet he did not con- 
sider himself a “ deformed ” person by any means. He 
began to think that this young lady certainly deserved her 
fate — if it were to be her fate to milk cows on the prairie. 

“ Have you a piano at your house, Mr. Kashfellow ?” 
asked Mrs. Fitzgrace, suddenly turning to Arthur. 

“ N — No,” replied the young man, coloring and turning 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


19 


his eyes piteously toward Gertrude, who quickly fixed 
hers upon some object on the nearest shore. 

Far off glimpses of railway works on the Canadian 
shore now engrossed the attention of the Senator, who 
gazed through a pair of field-glasses at them. He was 
evidently much more interested now than in the question 
of music. He had had to do with the building of a road 
in his own province, he said, and knew something about 
railway construction. His road has been but ten miles 
long, but vast engineering difficulties had had to be sur- 
mounted, so he let his fellow-travellers understand. As 
far as he could make out through the field-glasses, this 
road fell far short of the standard of bis early achieve- 
ment. And then, what was to be done with it when built ? 
There was no connection, as yet, at the Sault, and it was 
a question as yet whether there ever would be, he thought. 
He had always espoused the Conservative cause, and had 
fought many a hard-fought battle under the Conservative 
banner, but that was before it was considered the part of 
Conservative statesmen to build railways though hundreds 
of miles of such a country as this, to end no where. 
“ Algoma Mills ! where is Algoma Mills ?” he asked, con- 
temptuously, sweeping his glasses around the horizon in 
search of the missing point. But they were far out of 
range of Algoma Mills. The road was now being extended 
westward to the Sault, he explained. It went nowhere 
before, and now they were building on, in hope of striking 
some place where a carload of freight could be obtained. 
A bridge had been commenced at the Sault, where more 
hundreds of thousands were being sunk, but — and here the 
Senator shook his head solemnly, as if to say that all this 
would be in vain, the pursuit of a shadow, which would 
never materialize. “ I told Sir John so,” he said, “but he 
only gave me a slap on the back, ‘ never mind, Senator, 
well set the Yankees an example. If they don’t meet us 
when the bridge is done, it will be their loss — and we’ll 
bring their people all over to our side.’ This was his only 
reply,” said Mr. Watkins, again shaking his head at the 
remembrance of the Premier’s levity of speech. 


20 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


And now as they steamed up stream and drew towards 
the Sanlt, they caught sight of stump fires and gangs of 
men and horses clearing and preparing the right of way 
for the grade. There was at least life here and it hardly 
seemed as if all this preparation could be for nothing — the 
mere indulgence of a whim of the Government or the rail- 
way company or whomsoever might be responsible for the 
work. 

About noon the boat arrived at the American Sault. 
The Senator had surveyed the Canadian town through his 
glasses, but had apparently found no comfort in that 
survey. His impressions were summarized in the simple 
expletive “ faugh!” which he uttered as he put the glasses 
in their case and turned his attention towards the American 
town where they were now touching. The Canadian 
village indeed looked pretty enough as they passed before 
it, but distance did not lend enchantment to it in the eyes 
of the Senator, who saw only a tin roof or two glinting in 
the noonday sun, a few new buildings, a few more in 
course of erection, with a scattered fringe of newly built 
dwellings extending here and there in the outskirts. It 
looked painfully peaceful in the distance he thought, and 
then turned his attention to the other side, where all was 
bustle and activity. The ship was now tying up at a 
wharf. Beside her an American steamboat lay with a 
deck-load of curious tourists gazing at the last arrivals. 
Below, the wharf swarmed with the usual crowd, some look- 
ing upwards for expected faces, others staring vacantly. 
Up the river the rapids from this distance seemed to be 
dancing in the glittering sunlight. 

The young people begged for the privilege of a walk 
through the town, as the boat would be sometime reaching 
and working its way through the lock. Mrs. Fitzgrace, not 
free from the dread of a possible elopement, must of course 
accompany them, and the Senator readily consented to join 
the party. They first visited the post-office to drop a post- 
card or two to their friends at home, and then made their way 
to the fort, the Senator expressing a desire to inspect more 
closeljr the military post, whose not very formi(^ble aspect 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


21 


had nevertheless attracted his attention as they had come 
up the river. 

“ Don’t you think the old duifer is becoming rather 
attentive to your aunt, Gertrude ? ” asked Arthur, as the 
Senator bowed Mrs. Fitzgrace through the wicket, leading 
into the military reservation, while the young people 
followed slowly some distance in the rear. 

“ Nonsense, Arthur,” replied Gertrude, smiling however, 
“you shouldn’t speak so disrespectfully of a Senator. 
And Aunt Caroline has too much on her mind just now to 
pay much attention to /itm, I fear,” she added with height- 
ened color. 

“I say — wouldn’t a double marriage up at Winnipeg 
or the Portage astonish your father ? ” pursued the young 
man heedlessly, “just think how it would look in a tele- 
graphic dispatch in the papers. Just fancy how your 
father would rub his glasses to make sure that he had 
seen aright. 

“ Just think what nonsense you are talking Arthur,” 
the girl replied. I don’t think my Aunt will ever marry, 
and — and — ” she broke off here and glanced out upon the 
river. 

“Don’t say that the other will not come off, Gerty. 
I’ve set my heart upon that,” the young man exclaimed, 
looking earnestly at his companion. 

“ Hush, you foolish boy,” answered Gertrude. 

If I thought it wouldn’t I’d take a header into the 
river yonder and put an end to myseljW ” 

“ Don’t talk so — yes. Aunt, I see,” the latter words 
were addressed to Mrs. Fitzgrace who now stood with the 
Senator receiving some information from an American 
officer whom they had encountered, who had courteously 
replied to the Senator’s salutation. Gertrude’s attention 
was directed to a squad of soldiers in gray, who were being 
put through some evolutions in the barrack yard. The 
place was unsheltered and the heat excessive, so our 
friends soon took themselves back to the town, taking a 
look at the court-house and schoolhouse, and thence pass- 
ing on to the Iroquois Hotel There were signs on every 


22 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


hand suggestive of a boom.” Building operations were 
going on in every direction, while tent accomodation for 
man and beast occupied most of the waste places. The 
fakirs and peripatetic showmen abounded everywhere. A 
choice of walking-sticks was proffered to the passer by 
who could encircle one with a ring thrown quoit fashion. 
Aunt Sally seemed onmipresent, while the opportunities 
for testing the muscles and lungs by paying the small fee 
required for the use of the necessary apparatus, were fre- 
quent as the travellers sauntered along. 

“ This reminds me of Winnepeg in the boom time,” 
Arthur remarked somewhat sadly. “ Only the weather 
was, when the boom was at its height there, as cold as it is 
hot here. How well I remember the look of the streets, the 
overflowing auction rooms where land was being knocked 
down every few minutes by the foot or lot, at prices which 
would make the Senator s hair stand on end, were I to 
quote them, the endless price lists of real estate like that,” 
the young man pointed to a placard in the windows of a real 
estate office as they passed, “ displayed at every door and 
window on Main street. There was no shop but had its real 
estate department. The crowds, the Holmans nightly played 
Pinafore and Patience to in the old town hall, the constant 
popping of champagne corks in the clubs and in every bar, 
all comes back to me like a bad dream. Come Gertie, lets 
get away from this, which is but a faint reproduction of 
the scenes I remember,” and he hurried his companion 
on, first to the hotel,^and finding that bustle and real estate 
advertisements largely prevailed there too, he led her oft 
again down to the lock which they crossed, finally seating 
themselves on a bench which commanded a view of the 
rapids, where several Indians in their canoes seemed to be 
making sport of the rushing leap mg waters, so coolly did 
they appear to trust themselves and their little barks 
to the waves, up which they even fought their way 
cautiously enough along the side eddies, in search of fish. 
Up stream loomed the uncompleted stone abutments of the 
new giant railway bridge. In the foreground a new lock 
was in course of construction. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOB. 


23 


The young couple sat in the shade of the house or office 
of the officials of the locks, looking out over this scene, 
which to the girl at all events, was strangely interesting. 

“ It seems hardly possible,” she said, “ that all the 
waters of that great sea beyond, which I have so often 
heard of but have never before seen, could go rushing 
down this incline with after all, so little noise and hub- 
bub. At Niagara one feels the immensity of the thing in 
the continuous thunder of the Falls, the mist, and the ever 
present rainbow, but here the waters seem to rush laugh- 
ing like a lot of children out of school, happy to escape 
and loose themselves in the bosom of other streams and 
lakes.” 

“ And what would you have them do ? ” asked the 
young man. “Would you have them struggle against 
nature and endeavor to stagnate in one vast pond ? Isn’t 
it better that they should go on, down stream if you 
will, and enjoy life’s struggles and activities, aye and be 
purified by them, rather than strive for what is impossi- 
ble ? Even if you dammed the waters ever so securely 
up above, you couldn’t keep them from rising until they 
found some new channel, probably not half so good a one 
as the old one, and then burst forth to create havoc and 
destruction perhaps. It’s just so with people,” continued 
the young man, growing more eloquent and poetic in the 
presence ol nature’s beauties than was his wont, “ let them 
follow their own inclinations — through proper channels of 
course — and they will be happy. Try to turn them into 
new channels, and they will be miserable.” 

Gertrude began to be apprehensive lest this talk of 
rushing waters should render her lover too impetuous. She 
caught the drift of his discourse and dreaded a fresh out- 
burst such as she had more than once encountered — a 
sweeping away of the flood-gates such as he had just de- 
scribed. Miss Northcote was a prudent, though a loving 
girl. She had been brought up in the city, accustomed to 
the comforts, even the luxuries of life. She had all the 
lively perception of the modern young lady, of the advan- 
tages of wealth, civilization and home comforts. She re- 


24 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


garded these things as necessaries. Still she loved this 
young man well. Had he but these necessaries to offer her, 
she would be the happiest of mortals. She even thought 
at times she could bear the want of them with equanimity. 
Then thoughts of the house on the prairie — without a 
piano — so far away from . home and friends, overcame her 
and she would weep herself to sleep without having come 
to any fixed resolution as to whether she could and would 
bear it for Arthur’s sake. She put away the unwelcome 
thoughts of discomfort and loneliness and made up her 
mind to wait and see with her own eyes what was in store 
for her before finally deciding. At one time she would have 
gone off blindly with Arthur, but her Aunt’s interposition 
had prevented that. And now she felt her resolution 
gradually weakening under her Aunt’s influence, not that 
much was said on either side, more was left to be inferred 
than was actually uttered. That question about the piano, 
that very morning, indeed, had made her feel very un- 
comfortable and unhappy. She knew, of course, that Arthur 
had no piano. But the thought had not troubled her. When, 
however, her attention had been called to it in that way, she 
could not help reflecting how much comfort she had received 
at home from music, and how very, very lonely it would 
be out on the prairie without a piano to wile away the 
hours while Arthur might be absent. Some of these 
thoughts sprang to her mind now, when her lover’s tongue 
seemed on the verge of breaking into dangerous topics 
again. 

Her Aunt fortunately at that moment came to the 
rescue. 

" Why Gertrude — Mr. Rashfellow, do you intend to 
remain behind ? We could not think where you could have 
gone. Don’t you see our boat is just about to leave the 

dock r 

The young people, with the house between them and the 
lock, had not in truth thought of the boat, which they had 
barely time to go aboard of before she steamed out of the 
lock. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOB. 


25 


CHAPTER IIL 

AN IMPERIAL FEDERATIONIST. 

“ And what do you expect will be the future of this great 
country, Senator ?” 

The speaker was an active, bright-eyed merchant, a 
junior partner in a Montreal commercial house. Vigor 
and self-reliance were stamped upon his face, and showed 
themselves in his quick movements — ^he just now facing the 
Senator as they stood on the steamer's deck. Tliey had 
exchanged a few words on the subject of their common 
country, more especially regarding the north-west. The 
passengers had now come to know and address one another, 
after the manner of passengers on board ship a day or 
two out of port. The Senator was not one of the exclu- 
sive sort, and rather courted than shunned intercourse 
with his fellow citizens at all times. This young mer- 
chant was evidently one of those who are always prepared 
to express, and maintain by argument, if need be, their 
own opinions, and to accord the same privilege to others. 
The Senator, as he met the younger man's bright glance, 
returned a somewhat evasive answer to his question. 

“ I don’t know that I am quite prepared to say,” was 
what he said, “though wherever we are going, I think 
we’re going a little too fast.” 

A gentleman, who drew near at this moment, put in a 
“ Hear, hear,” to this remark. He had made known his 
political proclivities early in the voyage by many vehement 
denunciations of the Government, and by announcing him- 
self as a “ clear Grit of the grittiest kind.” He therefore 
applauded the Senator’s remark as a reflection on the Gov- 
ernment. 

“ I’m not a politician. Senator, but I beg to differ with 
you there,” exclaimed the young merchant, with frank 
good-humor, and with earnestness as well, “ if I did not 
forsee for Canada a great and glorious destiny, I should, 
perhaps, express myself in a somewhat similar way. Whep 


26 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


I reflect who we are and what we are — the possessors of 
the larger, and I believe, the better half of this great con- 
tinent — when I think of its illimitable resources and great 
natural advantages — its climate, its soil, its immense 
waterways such as this — when I think of the infantile 
struggles of the past and the milestones left behind, what 
we have achieved and what we may yet achieve, as a 
mighty part of a mighty Empire, I confess I am not in 
favor of a parsimonious policy nor of an unprogressive one. 
See how favored we are as a nation, Senator ! The vastest 
possession of this vast Empire, the future home of its 
teeming millions, even now affording a main highway for 
her commerce. Ere many years, I believe, we shall be her 
backbone, her granary,” the young man went on, indulg- 
ing in mixed metaphors, her park and her parade 
ground if need be, though I think that once the defensive 
alliance between the various members of the Empire, which 
I look for in the near future, is accomplished, we shall 
need but a small standing army, indeed, to enforce respect 
for this, as for every other portion of that greatest of 
Empires, whose supremacy on every ocean and sea shall 
be acknowledged, who shall hold the blessings of peace, 
freedom and Christian civilization within her mighty 
grasp !” 

“ An Imperial Federationist T queried the Senator, as 
the young Montrealer paused in his enthusiastic address 
to watch the white gulls, following in the wake of the 
ship, as they swooped down to the water to catch the 
bits of bread which Gertrude and some of the other ladies 
were casting upon the lake, over the stern of the vessel, for 
their benefit. 

“I am,” he promptly replied, “and what I fail to 
understand is how a Canadian can be aught else. When 
I came of age, my father gave me the option of continuing 
in his firm or of setting up for myself. I chose the former, 
I think wisely. An old school -fellow of mine about the 
same time was given the same option by his parent, but 
chafing a little under parental control, my young friend 
Qhose to leave the old house on St. Paul Street and open a 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


27 


business for himself. His small business could not stand the 
strain of competition with his neighbors, to one of whom, 
to save himself from being crushed out, he sold out, enter- 
ing this rival to his father’s firm in a position inferior to 
that his father two years before had offered him in his 
own house. Do you think I would change places with 
him now ? No, indeed. When I think of the honored 
position which Canada will, if she is wise, in a few years 
occupy, within the British Empire, and of the other 
alternative destinies within her reach, I am an Imperial 
Federationist every time !’* 

“ Why not go in for a federation of the Anglo-Saxon 
race ?” put in the gentleman who had applauded the 
Senator’s cautious remark a few minutes ago. 

“All right when the time comes,” replied the young 
Federationist, “ but let us set our own house in order first. 
My young friend in Montreal had dreams, perhaps, when 
he entered his new firm, of getting back to the parental 
house, from which he regretted ever having departed, by 
bringing about an amalgamation of the two, but, alas ! his 
new partners only use his name to help them undermine 
the older structure, which has stood honorably by its cus- 
tomers and the public for half a century, and as my young 
friend finds himself obliged to drum the towns and cities 
in competition with his father’s travellers, I warrant 
his hopes are growing fainter and fainter. Senator,” 
continued the young man, “ Britain has been the 
mother of nations, and has carried freedom and an open 
Bible into every clime. I want to see the re-union of 
the Anglo-Saxons take place under her glorious flag. 
Britain has been tried and not found wanting. I’m for full 
partnership with the parent. I don’t mean in local matters, 
but in matters of mutual interest, and I don’t care whether 
it’s by means of a parliament or a council of one man — and 
his wife, if you like — from each self-governing colony, 
providing the wife doesn’t rule her husband,” he added, as 
his eyes wandered involuntarily towards Mrs. Fitzgrace, 
who sat a short distance from them with a book in her 
hand, which she was ostensibly engaged in reading, while 


28 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


her alert eye was taking in all that was going forward 
within her range of vision. 

The dissertation of his fellow traveller on Imperial 
Federation failed to draw out the Senator, who looked 
upon the subject as of too visionary a character to engage 
the serious attention of a practical statesman, and, con- 
trary to his usual habit, he said nothing, but withdrew to 
the quarter of the deck where Mrs. Fitzgrace sat, leaving 
his whilom supporter and the young Montrealer to finish 
the subject. 

Meantime Arthur Rashfellow and a young man from 
Brandon were discussing the revspective merits and advan- 
tages of that young city and Portage la Prairie, the town 
to which more than any other, Arthur now claimed to 
" belong.” 

"We have the best farming land in the whole noF- 
west,” said Arthur proudly, there is practically no reach- 
ing the bottom of our rich top-soil. With such a country, 
how can the town help prospering ? I’ve heard it’s different 
with some other places, where the farms are liable to be 
blown away, unless they’re held down by the mortgages.” 

" Well, it’s better to have them held down by mortgages 
than by water,” retorted the young Brandonian. " Your 
‘ slough ’ covers what should be t^ best land around your 
town — a veritable ‘Slough of Despond,’ convenient enough 
for the whole town to slip into some day — if it doesn’t kill 
you all with fever and ague first.” 

" Very fine talk for one coming from a town which may 
slide down its side-hill some rainy day,” replied Arthur, 
alluding to Brandon’s picturesque site. 

From aJl which, it will be seen that the young nor’- 
wester is nothing if not locally patriotic, yet quite pre- 
pared to stand up for the whole north-west, including all 
rival towns, if occasion demands a wider patriotism. 

Arthur did not care to have this young Brandon 
man’s playful strictures upon the Portage reach the 
ears of Gertrude, or more especially her aunt, not that 
there was anything in them, but for fear a prejudice 
against the place should be excited in the minds of the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


29 


ladies, whom he desired should be rather impressed by its 
attractions. Mrs. Fitzgrace and the Senator, however, 
both heard the young men’s badinage, (which in reality 
meant nothing but a little fun) and the former a moment 
after said, 

“ Mr. Watkins, I’m sure that Portage la Prairie must be 
a dreadful place. What in the name of conscience, is a 
‘ sloo ? ’ I declare I’m almost afraid to go there with poor 
Gertrude; what if she or I, or both of us should be 
stricken down with fever and ague ? I shudder at the 
thought !” 

I had always understood that the Portage was one of 
the healthiest, as well as most favorably situated of north- 
west towns, yet that young man’s words certainly raise a 
suspicion as to the salubrity of the locality.” 

“If my brother were only with us,” suggested Mrs. 
Fitzgrace, “ I shouldn’t mind, you know.” 

“ On the ground that men are not susceptible to fever 
and ague — unless the fever of speculation, which is apt to 
bring on the ague afterwards. However let your mind 
rest easy, my dear madam. I myself will accompany you 
to Portage la Prairie and brave the dangers of this ‘ sloo,’ 
if need be, rather than you should suffer the loss of your 
peace of mind,” said the Senator, bowing gallantly, as 
though he had just offered to accompany the ladies across 
the Sahara, or to the top of the Pyrenees, instead of sixty 
miles out of Winnipeg, in the direction he himself was 
going. 

“ Thanks, Mr. Watkins,” replied the widow, “ but we 
propose staying a day or two in Winnipeg before going on, 
and perhaps it would be hoping too much to expect you to 
neglect your important public duties to attend on two 
unprotected females.” She quite ignored Mr. Rashfellow 
as an escort, it was plain. 

“ As to that, my dear madam, I must see Winnipeg of 
course — and as well going as coming, so let us consider 
that matter settled ” and again the Senator bowed. 

“You are so kind, Mr. Watkins,” and the lady shot a 
glance into the Senator’s eyes, which caused him to resolve 


30 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


forthwith that he would take up his abode at the Portage 
for three months if necessary for their complete protection. 

As for Gertrude, notwithstanding the presence of Arthur, 
notwithstanding that they were sometimes, though not 
often alone together, that they more frequently sat or 
walked the deck or sang at the piano together under 
the watchful eye of her aunt, and that the great lake was 
calm — it cannot be said that she was altogether happy. 
The weight of her aunt’s disapproval seemed to press 
heavily upon her. The distance from home, from which 
she had never wandered far, the vastness of this great 
inland sea, when they lost sight of land altogether, con- 
tributed to her feeling of unrest. Had her father been here in 
place of her aunt, or had she been alone with Arthur, the die 
cast, travelling to her home in the west, she felt it would have 
been different, and she would have been contented. As it 
was, Mrs. Fitzgrace’s presence and supervision seemed to 
pervade her as the spirit of discontent. She felt that her 
aunt was disinterested in her motives, and meant well by 
her, but this only added to the difficulty of her position. 
At night, as the fog, so common on Lake Superior, was 
upon them and she lay in her berth, the dismal blast of 
the fog whistle, repeated at short intervals all through the 
long night, made her shiver more and more with each 
repetition of its dirge-like tone and filled her mind with 
dark presentiments of evil, until she was ready almost to 
cry out in despair. She began to wish she had never left 
home, and the feeling gained force. She was, in fact, 
thoroughly homesick and dispirited, and the knowledge 
that her lover was near her was not sufficient to drive 
away this feeling of despair. Would it ever leave her ? 
That was the question which again and again presented 
itself to the poor girl’s mind and refused to be satis- 
factorily answered. When the morning came, and the 
fog had not lifted, she felt as nervous and dispirited as 
ever. Her aunt’s manner was kind and solicitous. Arthur 
looked rather cast down and unhappy. Gertrude made a 
desperate effort to be gay and cheerful, and failed utterly. 
Then she asked to be excused and again sought her berth. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


31 


Some three hours later when, roused by her aunt, 
Gertrude once more appeared on deck, she found the scene 
so changed as to turn away all thoughts for the time from 
herself. They were about entering the far-famed Thunder 
Bay, and as she gazed at the mighty towering Thunder 
Cape, the fog now dispelled, the sun breaking through 
the clouds and bringing out soft colors on the face of this 
giant ; as, entering the vast and beauteous bay, her eyes fell 
upon Pie Island and the more distant McKay Mountain, swept 
over the nestling town of Port Arthur on the distant 
shore, then once again turned to contemplate that grand 
and awful cape, the girl felt lifted for the time being out 
of her perplexities and completely forgot them in the 
grandeur of the scene. 

Exclamations of wonder and admiration were heard on 
all sides. Even the Senator forgot for a time who he was, 
as he gazed. Then for a half hour or more his glasses 
seemed glued to his nose,while^he endeavored to supplement 
their power by a pair of binoculars belonging to the cap- 
tain, while he sought for the mouth of the Kaministiquia, 
about whose shoals and bar he had heard so much in Par- 
liament. About noon they reached the wharf, and soon, 
like the rest of the ship s passengers, were inspecting the 
pleasant and beautifully situated lakeport of the north- 
west, much as they had done the Sault some twenty-four 
hours before. They gazed^at the displays of quartz and 
spar, walked up the gently rising streets, took a land view 
of the great bay, and returned to the hotel for dinner. 


CHAPTER IV. 

AT WINNIPEG. 

At noon on a fine July day there stepped from the last 
sleeper of the Canadian Pacific Express, which had just 
arrived at Winnipeg from the east, an elderly gentleman, 
short and stout, a handsome lady of middle age, a pretty 


32 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


young lady of slender figure, and a good-looking, curly- 
haired young man. The discerning reader need hardly be 
informed that the Hon. Ezra Watkins, Senator ; Mrs. 
Fitzgrace, Miss Southcote, and Mr. Arthur Rashfellow 
composed this somewhat distinguished party. They had 
left Port Arthur at 14:30 precisely, and come through 
without mishap. The Senator had enjoyed the trip amaz- 
ingly, sitting by the side of Mrs. Fitzgrace most of the 
previous afternoon and that forenoon. He had been up at 
daybreak this morning, note-book in hand, that he might 
judge of the roadbed which had been the subject of so 
much controversy, and might catch a glimpse of the 
beauties of Rat Portage and its vicinity. He had succeeded 
in arousing the interest of Mrs. Fitzgrace to such an ex- 
tent that that lady had actually appeared from the state- 
room occupied by herself and her neice, just before the 
train passed over Tunnel Island, and again took a seat 
beside Mr. Watkins, and as the train passed through the 
tunnel, Mr. Rashfellow long afterwards made the assertion 
to Gertrude that he saw or heard — but as Mr. Rashfellow 
was at the time in his berth, and presumably fast asleep, 
and as, moreover, his testimony can scarcely be accepted 
as unprejudiced, it will be better to pass over his asser- 
tion, and proceed with the narration of well authenticated 
historical facts in connection with this most momentous 
summer trip of Senator Watkins. The scenery on and 
about Tunnel Island had certainly an exhilirating effect 
upon the Senator. He talked in his best vein, that is to 
say, very much in the first person singular, with an occa- 
sional first person plural, including his handsome fellow- 
passenger, whom it was evident he more and more regard- 
ed as a person worthy of his best conversational efforts 
and even of his confidence. 

Arthur did not neglect the opportunity afforded by the 
confidences of the seniors to indulge in some little confi- 
dences with the girl of his heart, though conscious that the 
alert eye of the aunt was most of the time upon him and 
the object of his love, either directly or through the 
medium of the mirrors with which the car seemed to 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


33 


abound. And here they were at Winnipeg, with the great 
question still unsettled, for Gertrude had complained of a 
headache — that most unpropitious of feminine conditions 
— and the young man wisely, perhaps, forebore to press 
his suit to extremities. He thought it would be better to 
wait now until she should see his home, and then and 
there, if possible prevail upon her to remain with him. 

Winnipeg the golden ! Winnipeg the city where so 
many hopes lie buried, yet which is still so full of hope, the 
city of Young Canada, Lord DufFerin’s “gateway ” of the 
north-west. Even the Senator opened his e 3 "es very wide 
for a time as they all drove in an open carriage from 
the station to the Queen’s Hotel, along the broad and hand- 
some Main street. The transition was so sudden, from 
the dreary almost uninhabited country through which for 
hours past they had been speeding to this stately well 
paved street, teeming with life, as it now was. Every 
object upon it betokened a metropolis, from the tall helmeted 
policeman to the screeching newsboy. The cabs, carriages, 
street cars and omnibusses, varied by an occasional Red River 
ox-cart, among wheeled things. The quick footed, well 
dressed citizens, the scarlet tunicked soldiers, the black- 
robed priests, the bright eyed ladies under bright hued 
parasols, the unmistakeable freshly arrived Englishman, 
with here and there an Italian, a Yankee, an Indian Half- 
breed, a Chinaman, an Icelander or a Mennonite, gave to 
the street an air not only metropolitan but cosmopolitan. 
As our party were driving past the square in which stands 
the imposing City Hall, the Senator called to the driver to 
pull up for a moment before the volunteer monument 
while he adjusted his glasses to read the inscription upon 
it, while Arthur in answer to an inquiring look from 
Gertrude said, “ yes, I was there and saw at least one of 
the poor fellows fall — but don’t let us talk about it,” and 
he turned to point out the lofty post-office building on the 
left side of the street. 

“ Many a half-hour I stood in the line inside the former 
old post-office which stood there, in the winter of ’82, wait- 
ing for my turn to ask for a letter from — you know who — 


34 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


and too often only to be disappointed,” he whispered. Ger- 
trude made no reply. She remembered only too well that 
she had received letters from him at the period alluded to 
and, through the influence of her aunt, had been persuaded 
that she ought not to reply to them and had been very 
wretched in consequence. The eyes of the aunt were upon 
her noW; and what could she do, or say, further than to 
feel and look guilty ? 

At the hotel, as soon as rooms were secured, the party 
immediately lunched, as Arthur had arranged to go on to 
the Poi’tage by the first train, which would leave in about 
an hour’s time, and look over his farm and set his house in 
order in anticipation of the advent of the ladies there. Ah, 
how anxiously he looked forward to that time. How he 
wished that everything might look its best and that his 
modest home might seem attractive in her eyes. He dared 
not hope that it would find favor in the eyes of Mrs. 
Fitzgrace, but, if only Gertrude would feel it possible to 
stay with him there, he cared not whether her aunt might 
like it or not. 

“ Au revoir — not good-bye — Mr. Rashfellow,” said Mrs. 
Fitzgrace, gracefully enough, as he rose to leave. “ We shall 
see you on Tuesday.” A pressure of Gertrude’s hand, with 
a downcast look and a little smile — almost the first he had 
received that morning, for the headache had not departed 
yet — an assurance from the Senator, that he, too, would be 
at the Portage on Tuesday, and Arthur was off*. 

The ladies betook themselves to their rooms for rest, 
and the Senator shortly after strolled out to see more of 
the town. 

An hour later he was sitting in the smoking room of 
the Manitoba Club, to which an acquaintance whom he had 
met on the street had taken him. He was ensconced in 
an arm chair, while a number of gentlemen sat around in 
varied and comfortable attitudes. The Senator had been 
introduced to all present, with the exception of Mr. Graham, 
the young merchant and imperial federat’onist of Montreal, 
whose acquaintance he had formed on the boat, who had 
just lunched at the Club. Mr. Watkins w^as in his glory 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


35 


now, as a cigar between thumb and forefinger, and a glass of 
champagne beside his elbow, he recounted his impressions 
of the journey so far, and of the road-bed of the C. R R., 
so far as he had been able to inspect it. Thence the con- 
versation naturally led to railway matters generally, a 
topic just then uppermost in Winnipeg. Tho Provincial 
Government was about to commence the construction of 
the Red River Valley railway, its act of incorporation hav- 
ing been once disallowed by the Dominion Government. 

“ And you want the veto power wiped out, eh ?” queried 
the Senator. 

“ Certainly,” replied one of the Winnipeg gentlemen, 
“ why should the old man say ‘ we cannot check Manitoba,’ 
and then disallow our act ?” 

“As I understand it,” rejoined the Senator, “ he meant 
that the central Government could not put an irritating 
check rein upon your Legislature, but he did not say they 
could go in any direction they pleased without any chance 
of their act being vetoed. We may have no right to put a 
cruel bearing rein upon a horse, but that does not imply 
that we must toss the reins across his back and give up all 
control.” 

“ Too metaphysical, Senator, too metaphysical by half !” 
retorted the champion of provincial rights. “ W hat use 
in taking off the check rein, and then pulling the horse on 
his haunches with a curb- bit ?” 

Here Mr. Graham quietly interposed. “ Both sides are, 
I think, to a certain extent right. When the horse is well 
broken to harness he will have all the freedom he requires. 
A skilful driver keeps his horse well in hand until he 
knows he will go steadily in harness, else he would soon 
overturn the coach. Forgive me if I say that what you 
ardent Manitobans forget is, that we are not in a one- 
horse conveyance. It is laudable of the young horse to 
wish to pull more than his share of the load ; but if he 1 e 
not reined in a little, a catastrophe is inevitable. Tlie 
^old man,’ as driver, has to take care that the young Mani- 
toban nag does not run away and wreck the turnout. As 
soon as he is sure of you, I predict you will have all the 


36 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


freedom you require, but the C. P. K is the waggon- 
tongue, and the nation’s commerce must follow it, and our 
Provincial horses should pull with and alongside it, and 
not try to kick it to pieces.” 

“All very fine, Graham. Of course you want us to 
always pull in the direction of Montreal. But you may 
make up your mind that the Manitoba horse is going to 
run away, if it doesn’t get this boundary railway !” 

“ Well, well,” interposed the Senator, “you’re going to 
have another railway to the boundary, and one to Hudson’s 
Bay. What next — what next ?” 

“ Why, haven’t you heard, Senator ?” replied a young 
man, with a twinkling eye, who had not before spoken, 
(the men were mostly young), “ this 3^ear we expect the 
Red River Valley will be built. Next year the locomo- 
tive whistle will be heard at Hudson’s Bay. The Winni- 
peg and Alaska Air Line is next. It is to run from here 
to the mouth of the Yukon in Alaska, to connect with 
the Hudson’s Bay road in the east, and with St. Peters- 
burg by a transfer ferry across Behring Straits on the 
west. It is expected to take all the summer travel.” 

“ Shut up ; minion of the C. P. R. !” shouted the pro- 
vincial rights champion, while murmurs of “ Put him out the 
window ! ” “ Strangle him ! ” and similar murderous threats 
came from all sides. The Senator loo^ ed from one to 
another in amazement. To him a railway to Alaska 
seemed no more extravagant an idea than one to Hudson’s 
Ba}^. 

“That’s just like you fellows,” exclaimed the young 
offender. “ I propose to pour the wealth of the Mackenzie 
River basin into your laps, metaphoricajiy speaking, tiiid 
you won’t have it, because the line would run north-west 
instead of somewhere where it would hurt your friends 
and do you no good.” 

“And when it was completed, the C. P. R. would 
swallow it and the Mackenzie River basin, too, at one 
gulp,” retorted one of the others. 

The friend who had brought the Senator to the club 
and put him up as a visiting member having, on the ground 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


37 


of a previous engagement, excused himself and gone away 
some time before, Mr. Watkins and Mr. Graham, who were 
staying at the same hotel, left the Winnipeggers to finish 
their discussion and departed. 

“ Are they altogether sane, think you V asked the 
Senator, gravely, as they reached the street. 

“ Oh, yes, for the most part, perfectly level-headed and 
in earnest. Though there is a good deal of private schtm- 
ing and corruption, the heart of Winnipeg is sound, and 
the bulk of her men patriotic. They are mostly young 
men, as you have observed, but full of hope and ambition 
for their country. Young Canada rules here ; they are 
bound to have this Ked River Valley road too, and, I 
believe, will have it. They went through an experience 
at the time of the “boom,” which will, let us hope, keep 
them out of wildcat ventures for the future. They have 
shown wonderful powers of recuperation. You would 
scarcely credit it, were I to describe to you the saturnalia 
which I witnessed in the winter of ’82. Across there,” 
said Graham, pointing across the street, as they reached 
the hotel, “ stood one of the favourite auction rooms, and 
another just around the corner, where crowds stood 
bidding day and night for little 25x100 foot lots they had 
not 07ily never seen, but which might be under water half 
the year round for aught they knew — bidding, too, for 
lots a mile out on the prairie, what could not be got for 
good lots within Montreal or Toronto. I saw that corner 
lot there,” he pointed to a cross street to the west, 
“ knocked down in the auction room across the way for 
seventy thousand dollars to a man who was soon after- 
wards willing to pay thousands to be released from his 
bargain, and had to purchase immunity by a long and 
costly law suit. The worst feature was that the vendors 
were a church corporation — a church building stood on the 
spot when sold. The churches were not above enriching 
themselves at the expense of the innocent, and sought to 
make money, by the cupidity of others. This hotel was a 
seethii^ mass, day and night, of land speculators, while 
land offices were erected in the corner of all the public 


38 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


rooms. It was the same everywhere, and the consumption 
of champagne was appalling ! But excuse me, if I change 
the subject, Senator. I met young Rashfellow here in 
the thick of it, at that time, and have met him in my 
periodical trips to the north-west several times since. Is 
he — is there anything between him and the pretty young 
lady who is with you ?” 

“ I believe there is some sort of foolish entanglement, 
which her aunt, Mrs. Fitzgrace, is just now anxious to 
unravel.” 

“Ah, I see,” remarked Mr. Graham, dryly as the 
Senator, leaving him, ascended the staircase. “ But take 
care,” the young merchant added to himself, “ that while 
she is unravelling that web with your assistance, you are 
not caught in the meshes yourself !” Mr. Graham’s in- 
terest in the young pair of lovers had become somewhat 
aroused during the course of the trip up from Ontario. 
Arthur he had known, as he had said, for some years, but 
had known little of his history. During the trip he had 
noticed many things — for he was an observant, though not 
impertinent or prying, man — which he thought strange at 
the moment, and which he now began to understand. He 
liked the young man, and was taken with the appearance 
of the young lady. 

Meanwhile Gertrude had kept to her room, racked with 
nervous headache. The day of anti-pyrine had not yet 
come, and her malady had to run its course. She was 
wretched, and had not strength even to wish herself better. 
Towards evening her head throbbed less, and the Senator 
suggested to her aunt that they should all three go and 
hear the “ Pirates of Penzance ” at the Opera House. To 
this Gertrude merely replied by a .shake of the head when 
it was mentioned to her, and her aunt did not press her to 
go, neither would she leave the hotel without her neice, 
so it came to pass that she and the Senator spent the 
greater part of the evening together in the hotel drawing- 
room. He found her as agreeable as ever, an attentive 
listener (a rare and excellent qual ideation), while what she 
said was always sensible and to the point. And then the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


39 


fact could not be overlooked, especially by one who was 
spending an evening alone in her company, that she was 
was a very handsome, a remarkably handsome woman, the 
Senator began to think, now that his attention had, as it 
were, been called to the point. 

Next morning being Sunday, the two ladies were 
escorted by Mr. Watkins to the beautiful church of the 
Holy Trinity, where good music and an excellent sermon 
had a soothing effect upon Gertrude. Her elders had time 
to observe the congregation as well, whom they were a 
little surprised to find, if anything, better dressed and 
better looking than the congregations they were accus- 
tomed to seeing in old Canada. 

In the afternoon Mrs. Fitzgrace and Gertrude went to 
see some friends who knew nothing of their coming, but 
whose address they had obtained from mutual friends at 
home, just before leaving. The Senator found the club 
again a very pleasant afternoon resort. 


CHAPTER V. 

AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE. 

Poor Arthur Rashfellow, as his train whirled him towards 
the Portage on that Saturday afternoon, could not help 
feeling a sinking of the heart. He hummed a tune at 
first to keep up his courage, but it died away on his lips. 
Then he went into the smoking compartment and tried to 
divert his mind with a cigar and conversation with some 
acquaintances he met, but all to no purpose. Finally he 
returned to his first seat and remained looking out of the 
window until the train reached Portage la Prairie. 

This should ha/e been the happiest of days for him, he 
felt, had he been bringing the girl of his heart as a bride 
to his home. That happiness, he believed, he would now 
be experiencing, were it not for the meddlesome Mrs. 
Fitzgrace, who stood in his way, as a marplot for all his 


40 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


plans. Had he not been constant enough to win the love 
of any girl, and the confidence of any reasonable parent or 
guardian ? Had he not loved her dearly, even from child- 
hood up, and would her affection for him, which she had 
many and many times expressed, even in words, though 
more often by glances and gentle pressures of the hand 
and all the other little signs, which, when spread over 
many years, bring certainty of a real affection to the mind 
of the recipient ; would this affection now turn to indiffer- 
ence ? Gertrude was rather a self-contained girl, so far 
as words were concerned, but this only made her signs of 
preference the more significant, and then had she not long 
ago plighted troth with him ? Was she going back, now 
that he bad prepared a home for her ? To be sure it was 
not much of a home, and unless her love was warm and 
steadfast as he knew his was, her life would be lonely and 
dreary — and then he was seized with an ague of doubt and 
despondency — what a home, after all, to bring such a tender 
flower to ! Could he expect her to accept the lot ? If she 
would but stay though; if love and tender treatment 
could make the prairie blossom the year round, and the 
house a comfortable, or at least an endurable one, would 
he not lavish these upon her without stint or selfishness ? 
So in alternate hope and dread the time passed, until the 
train pulled up at the Portage. 

Arthur had telegraphed bis man to meet him. When 
he got off the train he looked around for his man and his 
horses in vain. He walked around the station, looked up 
and down the street, but could see nothing of the missing 
Joggins. At last he hailed the driver of the last ’bus, 
which was leaving the station for the town, asking him if 
he had seen Joggins or his horses, anywhere. The ’bus 
driver, who was but a lad, broke into a broad grin, nudged 
a young companion who sat beside him, and pointing with 
his whip in the direction of the town, lashed his horses 
into the semblance of a trot, Arthur having already de- 
clined a proffered " lift ” down town in his conveyance. 

Arthur started for town on foot, in hope of meeting 
the man on the way. When he reached Saskatchewan 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


4 ] 


Avenue, the principal street of the place, he dropped into the 
first hotel and enquired whether anything had been seen of 
Joggins — Yes, the bar-kei per said, he had been in an hour 
or so ago, and had had a drink, and gone out again. He 
had caught a glimpse of the horses too, standing outside, 
smoking as if with fast driving. Then Arthur walked 
toward the old part of the town, to the east. Passing the 
brick town hall building, he went on to Main street, and 
down that principal business thoroughfare of old Portage la 
Prairie, making for a tavern at which he knew his man 
sometimes put up when sent by him to town. Here as he 
turned into the stable yard he received a slight shock- — the 
light“ democrat” which he usually drove, which was in fact 
his only conveyance, excepting a light buckboard and a 
heavy wagon — the conveyance in which he had hoped to 
to drive his guests in a day or two out to his farm, with 
some comfort and a little “style” — stood in the yard among 
a number of other wagons, carts and buckboards, with 
very evident signs of recent rough usuage. The dash- 
board was partly torn off, and two or three spokes of one 
of the forewheels were badly smashed, the whole wheel 
being “ sprung.” 

“ Yes, pretty badly sprung, ain’t it ?” said the hostler, as 
Arthur gave the wheel a shake, “ but it ain’t a patchin’ to 
the way the man is ‘ sprung ’ ” he added, as he led the way 
to the stable, and proceeded to stir a mass of limp humanity, 
stretched on some straw in one of the stalls, with the toe 
of his boot. A snort was the only response from this 
mass, which presently in the dim light began to assume 
the shape of a man lying face downwards, the garments 
presenting a familiar appearance to the eyes of Arthur. 

“ He’s been havin’ jest a dandy time, you bet,” remarked 
Jim, the hostler, “ ever since you ben gone. Joggins is wot 
you call him, but he ain’t been joggin’ much since you left, 
you bet ! Jest look at your horses in the next stall. Mister 
Rashfeller, an’ you’ll have some idee of the gait he’s been 
goin’ at,” he added, while Arthur stepped to the double 
stall, next to that in which the trusted Joggins lay, and 
took a hasty survey of the pair of horses which he had 


42 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


formerly taken a pride in driving, but which now showed 
unmistakable signs of pretty rough usage. One had a cut 
on his flank, while both were trembling and exhausted, 
and still hot from recent exercise. 

Arthur heaved a sigh as he looked at the horses, and 
then turned his attention to Joggins, who appeared to be 
in the condition recognized as a common form of “ para- 
lysis,” the symptoms of which are usually utter helpless- 
ness, accompanied by a very strong smell of Canadian 
whiskey — symptoms which were both present in this most 
deplorable case. Jim again stirred his patient with the 
boot and shook his head solemnly, after the manner of a 
medical man with a hopeless case. He even played the 
role so far as to lead the way quietly out of the stable 
before he again spoke, though there seemed no danger of 
the patient overhearing, or at any rate apprehending any- 
thing which might be said. 

“ You see,” said Jim, “ whiskey fetches them English 
fellows, most every time. No sooner d you gone to On- 
tario afore he began cornin’ into town pretty reg’lar, most 
every day in fact, sometimes with his missus and some- 
times alone, an’ always havin’ a high ole time afore he left. 
And from the number o’ times I seen that two-gallon jar 
o’ his’n cornin’ in an’ out, I guess he kep’ it up pretty well 
to home, too. And,” added Jim, in a stage whisper, “I 
reckon his wife ain’t much behind him. She ain’t with 
him to-day, but I’ve seen her many a time pretty jolly, 
too !” 

This was painful news to Arthur, who had left this 
couple in charge of the farm, with full confidence that 
they were just the people whom he could safely trust to 
look after the place and keep everything in the best of 
order. He had known little or nothing about them when 
they came to him early in the spring, but they were good 
workers, had no children, seemed to know their place, and 
soon won their way to his favor, in so much that, as has 
been already said, he left the farm in their charge when 
he went east, after seeding time, with the fullest confi- 
dence that all would be well. He had never seen the man 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


43 


the worse of liquor but once, and then he had been so 
ashamed of himself afterwards when taxed with it, that 
Arthur felt safe from a repetition of this lapse for the 
future, while the wife, though he had known her take a 
glass in time of supposed sickness, he by no means sus- 
pected of being addicted to intemperate habits. 

His worst fears were soon to be realized. After obtain- 
ing a hired conveyance from a neighboring livery, and 
having had his horses fed and rubbed down by Jim, with 
the latter’s assistance he managed to get Joggins, who had 
had time to sleep himself half sober, to his feet and into 
the conveyance He would have abandoned him on 
the spot, but for the sake of the man’s wife, who he 
knew must be at home. Then taking up the reins, 
he rewarded Jim with a half-dollar, and set out upon his 
seven mile drive in no pleasurable frame of mind. He 
had put Joggins in the back seat of the conveyance that 
he might escape the fumes of stale whiskey with which 
the man was reeking, and, himself in the front seat, they 
started amidst the laughter of the stragglers about the 
hotel and stable yard ; and those of his acquaintance 
whom he encountered on the road only added fuel to the 
flame now raging within him, by broad smiles and in 
many cases jests which seemed to him exceedingly coarse 
and out of place : “ Who’s your passenger — a guest from 

Ontario ?” demanded one, while the next shouted : “Drive 
easy. Rash — the gentleman’s asleep ! ” 

It was about half-past seven as he approached his 
house. If his reflections on board the train had not been 
altogether comforting, they were much less so during this 
drive homeward on this quiet July evening. Mingled 
feelings of wrath at his besotted companion and fears for 
the state of things which he might find at home filled his 
mind for the tirn^ being, to the exclusion pretty much of 
all else, though occasionally his thoughts would wander off 
to Gertrude, until a snore from Joggins would arouse him 
from his reverie. The sun was setting as he first discenied 
his house across the prairie, and at the same moment his 
quick eye detected some dark objects moving in the yellow 


44 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


field of favorite wheat he had mentioned to Gertrude on 
board the steamer. What could they be ? He urged 
forward the horses, one of which showed signs of lameness 
and both of fatigue, as they moved along the trail. A few 
minutes and his fears were confirmed. It was a herd of 
cattle in his wheat ! He turned to the man behind, w^ho 
wa^ slowly regaining his senses and demanded an explana- 
tion, but none was forthcoming and he again urged for- 
ward his horses. A couple of miles had yet to be made 
and quickly they sped along until at length he drew rein 
at the edge of the broad wheat-field wherein half a dozen 
head of cattle — his own — were enjoying themselves, some 
feeding, others lying down quietly, while their marks and 
trails were everywhere. He jumped out, and Joggins, who 
had now regained his senses, followed him, glad of the 
opportunity to have attention diverted from himself. 
They rushed in and drove the cattle out and along the 
trail, until they reached a large field enclosed by a wire 
fence into which they turned them. 

Arthur returned for his horses and took them to the 
stable and put them up himself, not trusting to Joggins 
who merely lent a hand in unharnessing. Then he pro- 
ceeded to the house, Joggins following shortly after. As 
Arthur entered the door of his dwelling he called “Betsy,’' 
— the household name of Mrs. Joggins — but received no 
reply. He had entered by the kitchen door, expecting to 
find her employed there, but the fire was out, and so 
apparently was Betsy. He passed by into his sitting-room, 
his favorite and chief living-room in the house, where he 
ate, smoked, read, and in fact spent most of his indoor 
hours when at home. It had many easy chairs, and a 
large and very comfortable sofa, or rather a broad, flat 
lounge, and on this lay the woman slumbering, her hair 
and clothes in disorder, while his best pair of decanters 
empty, and a tumbler on the table beside her, told the tale 
of how her afternoon had been spent. The room was in 
great disorder. The presence of Joggins’ working boots, 
hat and clothes in prominent positions about the room, 
showed that it had been appropriated and used by the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


45 


servants as their living room also in his absence. What 
attracted Arthur’s attention above everything, however, 
was a medium sized box, which he recognized as belong- 
ing to Mrs. Joggins and which stood open in the middle of 
the room and in which seemed to be stowed in some con- 
fusion the most valuable articles he had in the house, 
cutlery, silver spoons, some old vases and mantel orna- 
ments, a quantity of linen, silver candlesticks, a pair of 
revolvers, and many other small valuables. 

Arthur went out and brought Joggins into the room. 
He glanced at his wife uneasily, and when his eye lighted 
on the box, he gave a start. 

“ Wake up that woman,” said Arthur, who had scarcely 
spoken a word since he had left the Portage. Joggins 
obeyed, and gave his wife a rough shaking. She sat up, 
rubbed her eyes with her knuckles and took a look round. 
Her eyes usually leaden in hue, were bloodshot, her clieets 
flushed. She had been a good looking woman enough, but 
but there was a coarseness about the mouth always, and 
her recent debauch had brought out all her coarseness 
and given her a sodden and uncanny appearance, which to 
Arthur was very repul 'ive. 

“ Mercy on me, but it’s master,” she exclaimed as she 
threw her feet on the ground and began to smooth her 
hair with the palms of her hands. 

“ Who let the cattle into the wheat and what does this 
mean ? ” demanded Arthur, pointing to the box. 

The woman answered the first part of the question 
first. This gave her time to prepare a reply to the latter 
part. Had Arthur been a lawyer, probably he would 
have put the last query and insisted on an answer to it 
first. 

“ The cattle— in . the wheat,” she said slowly, as she 
went to the window and looked out in the direction of the 
wheat field, “ well I declare to goodness ; they boys is so 
careless — Joe,” referring to a small boy wha sometimes 
acted as herdsman for Rashfellow, and lived with^ his 
parents some little distance away, “Joe brought ’em ’ome 
hours agone, ’ee must a* left t’ paddock gate open,’ she said, 


46 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


and as her eye met Artlinr’s which now rested on the box, she 
continued: “ we was frightened by a tramp a few days agone, 
an’ as John were agone to town, an’ so ofen away, d’ve 
see, I thought as ’ow I’d put them things away safely till 
wanted. We know’d nowt about your cornin’ to-day, sir.” 
This was true, as Arthur’s telegram had not been sent out 
to the farm, and wlien the telegraph agent saw Joggins 
in town, he at once concluded that he was not in a con- 
dition to comprehend its meaning and so it had lain in the 
office. 

“ And what brought you to town, Joggins ?” Arthur de- 
manded, turning fiercely to the man, who stood sullenly 
looking at his wife. The man made no answer, and 
Arthur, whose wrath had now been pent up for hours, 
turned upon both as he said, “ I don’t believe a word of 
this ! You intended to rob me, but your drunkenness has 
over-reached you ! You can take yourselves off as fast as 
you like. Stay a moment,” he added, “ I owe you a month’s 
wages I believe, and though you don’t deserve it. I’ll pay 
you up and then you can go, or if you prefer to wait till 
the horses are fed I’ll drive you to town myself.” As he 
spoke he handed the man the money. 

The man looked sullen, but the woman grew defiant, 
“ Rob, did you say ! Have a care. Master Rashfell’. Ye’ve 
no call to treat us like this. We’ve bin faithful servants, 
and we’ll have the law o’ ye.” 

“ Shall I harness the horses or will you walk ?” was 
Arthur’s only response to this, as he turned to the man. 

“ Naw,” replied John. “We came afoot an’ we’ll go the 
same way, if so be as you’ve turned us hout ?” 

“ All right, pack your traps and I’ll take them to town 
to-morrow or Monday, if that will do ?” 

“Monday ’ll be time enough. We wouldn’t know 
where to put ’em to-morrow. Come along, Betsy, don’t ’ee 
be danglin’ here no longer. We’ll go where we’ll be treated 
like ’uman bein’s. Not like dogs by an upstart master!” 
with which parting shot Joggins strode out of the door, 
shortly after followed by his wife with a small bundle, 
their boxes having meantime been hastily packed and 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


47 


locked by her, under Arthur’s eye, after all his valuables 
had been removed from her chest. 

Arthur again went out and took a hasty survey of the 
place. Everywhere signs of carelessness and inattention 
on the part of his servants appeal ed. A garden full of 
weeds, a dirty stable, filth piled up even at the kitchen 
door, everything his eyes rested on told the same tale. He 
would have returned to the house utterly disheartened and 
solitary, but that his setter. Sport, came out of some hid- 
ing place apparently, and trotting up to him rubbed a cold 
nose against his hand, just as he was re-entering the house. 
Evidently the poor brute had not been well treated in his 
absence. 

“ Well, Sport, old boy, come in and keep me company. - 
Thank goodness they haven’t killed you.” 

Sport wagged his tail and looked up joyfully at his 
master, and together they entered the house. Fortuna^tely 
all thought of hunger was driven from the master’s mind, 
though he looked up some scraps for the dog, which the 
latter devoured voraciously. 

Next morning, though Sunday, Arthur drove into 
town, after breakfasting oft of some eggs, which he boiled, 
and a fragment of bread, which he found in the kitchen. 
He must have some new “ help,” now that his guests were 
coming, and to Jim, the hostler, he went and told his story. 
Jim scratched his head a moment, and then informed him 
that his wife’s sister and her husband were just arrived 
from the ea-st, and he would see whether they would be 
willing to go to him for a few days. This, the newly- 
arrived couple, on the state of matters being explained to 
them, agreed to do, and towards evening Arthur again set 
out for home, with the young man and woman, a capable- 
looking, lately-married couple from Ontario in the back 
seat, with their trunk behind them. 

Passing along the trail, within a mile or so of home, 
xirthur thought he detected a man and woman sitting be- 
hind a bit of scrub or bush in a coule which they passed. 

“ Can that be the Joggins’ ?” he said to himself. “ What 
are they doing here ? I gave him money enough to pay 


48 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR 


fcheir way for a few days in town.” Then he remembered 
that he had neither seen nor heard anything of them, at 
the Portage. 

The young man and woman turned out to be capital 
workers. The latter undertook to put the house in order 
for the expected guests, while Arthur and Tom, the man, 
set to work outside next morning with such a hearty will 
that by evening they had completely changed the face of 
things about the house and buildings. The vegetable 
garden was hoed and weeded and raked until it looked 
quite neat. A few flower beds in front of the house were 
gone over in the same way, and a few geraniums and 
verbenas in bloom, which Arthur had managed to borrow 
in the town and bring out in pots the day before, were 
sunk in these beds, and these, with what remained of bloom- 
ing flowerj wh'ch were there before, made them look quite 
gay. The grass was cut and made to look as trim as its 
rank and parched condition would permit. The kitchen 
and stable yards, too, received much-needed attention. 
Jemima, meanwhile, was airing linen for the beds, sweep- 
ing, dusting, scrubbing and, in fact, putting tlie house 
through the process known as “ house cleaning,” with great 
dispatch. 


CHAPTER VL 

PRAIRIE COTTAGE. 

“ There,’’ exclaimed Arthur, pointing with his whip towards 
the horizon, “do you see that speck in the distance, Gertie ? 
That's ‘ Prairie Cottage,’ as I call my manor house. It’s 
not much of a house or I’d give it a higher sounding title. 
I’d like to- change it’s name to 'Gertrude’s Bower,’” he 
added in a lower tone. He was driving his three guests 
along the trail between the Portage and his farm, on the 
Tuesday afternoon. It was a lovely afternoon, and as the 
sun sank towards the western horizon, bringing" out the 
varied hues of the ocean of waving crops and prairie 


THE CANADIAN SENATOIL 


49 


grasses around them, his spirits rose. Gertrude, who sat 
beside him in front, seemed to be enjoying the scene, while 
behind Mrs. Fitzgrace and the Senator were cliatting and 
laughing, apparently in high good humor. One valise for 
the ladies, and the Senator's travelling bag were the only 
luggage encumbering them, as Arthur had some difficulty 
in persuading them to come out even for one night, the 
elders exhibiting at the station a preference for the town 
and the comforts of the best hotel, of which, doubtless, 
they had been informed at Winnipeg fully, so they brought 
only such necessaries as a very brief visit demanded, leav- 
ing their heavier luggage at the station. 

“ I can’t see the house yet,” said Gertrude. “ My eyes 
are not as used to it as yours. How like an ocean it does 
seem, and how varied and beautiful the tints — yellow, 
dark green, light green, — and see the effect of that little 
cloud as its shadow sails over the green and turns it almost 
to blue !” 

Arthur was too delighted at seeing her enjoy the scene 
to break the spell by his common-place speech. 

“ But are there no orchards — no fruit ?” Arthur winced 
a little. 

“ Orchards are something v^e have to do without as ^^et. 
It is thought, however, that the hardier varieties of fruit — 
the Russian apples and other fruit will do well here,” he 
added hopefully. 

“ The prairie is very beautiful to-day,” said the girl. 
“ Oh, see those dear little flowers ! You must get me 
some — what are they ?” she exclaimed. 

“Just common prairie flowers, such as you will walk 
on every time you take a tramp across country.” He 
jumped out as he spoke, handing her the reins, and pluck- 
ing a handful of flowers, returned with them in a few 
minutes, casting them in her lap. He ran out again for 
more, and performed the same service for Mrs. Fitzgrace. 

“ How sweet they look,” said Gertrude, gathering the 
flowers together and fastening them at her waist. 

“ Did I not hear you say you have had trouble with 
your servants, Mr. Rashfellow ?” asked Mrs. Fitzgrace, 


50 


The CANAEtAl^ SENATOR. 


whose quick ear had taken in most of what was being said 
in front, even while she listened smilingly to the Senator’s 
rounded periods. 

I should rather think I had,” he replied. “ I packed 
them off for drunkenness and attempted thieving, as soon 
as I reached home. They were a had pair, so I have since 
heard from many in the town. I was told to-day that the 
man is supposed to have left England under a cloud, that 
he is suspected of having been a criminal of some sort. I 
took them without characters, and certainly haven’t any 
to give them. I thought I saw them lurking in that coule 
over there yesterday, and have heard nothing of their 
having since been seen in town. I took their traps in on 
Sunday and left tliem at the tavern, which was their chief 
resort, as they desired, and the things are tliere yet. I’m 
afraid tliey’re up to no good — or more likely are ffnishing 
their drunken bout, Indian fashion, on the prairie, though I 
haven’t seen them to-day, and whei-e they’ve got their 
whiskey hid is a mystery.” 

“ Most probably -they took a bottle or two with them 
when they left you,” suggested Mrs. Fitzgrace. 

“ Perhaps so — or the}?- may have had some in the stable, 
and. come back for it at night.” 

• The Senator meanwhile had been cultivating. his habits 
of observation. 

“ The crops seem- good,” he said, “ and the buildings 
better than I expected.” 

“ They are much better on the other trail,” answered 
Arthur. “ You know this is the best land in the north- 
west, and the farms in the direction I speak of would re- 
mind you of dear old Ontario. Some of them have been 
under cultivation twenty or thirty years without any 
fertilizing, and seem to do better and better.” 

“We passed a land transfer system for the territories. 
I wonder how it works.” 

“We have it here, too,” said Arthur, “and I hold a 
‘ Torrens ’ deed which I would’ri’t change for a farm double 
the size of mine under the old system,” said Arthur, en- 
thusiastically. “ A friend of mine in Winnipeg persuaded 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


51 


me to take it out, and now I can start for the ends of the 
earth without fear of lawyer’s bills following me if I 
choose to sell — but here we are,” he added, as he turned 
from the road into a side trail, leading through a field of 
ripening oats towards the house, which stood on a slightly 
rising site in a space surrounded by a few of the poplars 
of the country, which Arthur had nursed and encouraged 
with ceaseless care. “ Prairie Cottage ” was an unpreten- 
tious frame structure, a story and a half high, that is to 
say, the front ^howed one clear story, with a steep roof 
reaching up to the ridge, which ran from end to end of 
the building, affording space at either gable end for win- 
dows to light the upper rooms. A stout verandah running 
across the front of the house, consisting simply of floor, 
uprights and slanting roof, seemed strong enough to with- 
stand the wildest gales to which it might be exposed. The 
two front windows looked out upon it, and the front door, 
from which the storm door had been removed, to make 
room for a mosquito sash, opened upon the centre of this 
rough piazza. Arthur had taken care to have a few 
verandah chairs and a rug or two placed invitingly upon 
it, while Sport, ensconced upon one of the latter gave a 
homelike appearance to the whole. The plot of ground in 
which the house stood had been furbished up to look its 
best, and the geraniums and verbenas and other flowers 
served to brighten the somewhat faded grass. A flagpole, 
rather short and thin, but as good as the neighborhood 
afforded, stood in the centre of the plot, and at its top a 
simple St. George’s cross of red and white cotton stood out 
bravely in the breeze. This last, which was Arthur’s latest 
achievement in honor of the occasion, had caught the eye 
of the visitors a good way off ; but they had said nothing, 
the Senator preferring always, where possible, to trust to his 
own observation and trace effect to its original cause for 
himself, while the ladies were probably in doubt as to 
whether it might not be a forgotten fragment of tlie 
bachelor washing, and so waited until a nearer approach 
revealed its complimentary character, causing Gertrude to 
cry out aud clap her bauds gleefully. Arthur had been 


52 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR 


afraid of his life up to this moment to look at her as he 
approached his home, but now he turned on her a moistened 
eye of gratitude and love, which would have touched a 
much less tender heart than that of the young lady beside 
him. The trail or road by which they approached the 
house took a sweep to the right of the cottage and at the 
first turn Arthur drew up, preferring that his guests should 
alight there rather than that they should be dropped at the 
end of the verandah or the kitchen dooi; behind, the 
ordinary modes of entrance to the house, according to the 
station of the visitor. He preferred that on this occasion 
they should approach his house from the front in proper 
state. As he jumped to the ground with the reins in hand, 
he turned to assist Gertrude to alight, forgetting the aunt 
for a moment in the agitation at receiving his lady-love at 
his own home. The Senator was out in a trice, however, 
and made up for the younger man’s delinquency by assist- 
ing Mrs. Fitzgrace to the ground with safety and a dignity 
which said as much for his muscle as for his gallantry — for 
the. carriage was a high one. 

“I must make some steps here,” said Arthur, as he handed 
the reins to Tom, who had now appeared, and led the guests 
across his lawn to the house, where he placed the 
la^lies in charge of Jemima, who conducted them to one of 
the two apartments into which the house was divided 
upstairs by a small hallway. This latter was lit only by the 
door- ways on either side when open by day and by a 
bracket lamp by .night. He himself took the Senator to 
the other apartment opposite that of the ladies’. The latter 
was a cheerful and well aired, though plainly furnished 
room containing, however, two beds, and that most neces- 
sary article to a lady, a good glass. A few flowers, a 
colored rug or two, an embroidered table cover, a few 
bright panels and placques on the walls, showed that 
Arthur’s care had not been altogether confined to outside 
ornamentation. Jemima explained that the ladies were 
welcome to occupy Mr. Rashfel low’s room, which was below 
stairs and smaller, if they preferred it. Both ladies de- 
cided promptly in favor of the room they were in — the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


53 


aunt not desiring to disturb existing arrangements, as she 
wished to make their stay as brief as possible — Gertrude, 
because the room showed signs, she thought, of having 
been prepared for her — aiiH both having the fear of sleep- 
ing downstairs in a house where all the men are aloft — a 
feeling common to most ladies under similar circumstances, 
though in some instances an unfortunate preference, as 
subsequent events showed. 

As Gertrude stood looking out of the solitary window 
of their apartment toward the setting sun, a feeling of 
awe seemed to steal over her. The sublimity, and at the 
same time the dreariness of the prospect, filled her with 
conflicting emotions. The sparse poplar trees about the 
house in no way obscured the view from this window. 
Her eyes swept at a glance the boundless plain. A single 
"‘bluff” or bit of bush and a couple of distant farm houses 
were the only objects to break the monotony or to suggest 
life. Was this a vision of her future life should she remain 
here ? All was bright, Twas true, but oh, so lonely ! It 
was one thing to drive over the plain through waving fields, 
beside a gay companion, and another to look alone through 
an upper window at the prospect. The loved companion 
would, she remembered, be always with her — always ? 
The spirit of the vast plain seemed to answer her thought 
with nuking, and then the great red sun began to sink 
from view. She turned from the window with a sigh. 
Her aunt had been quietly brushing her hair before the 
glass and endeavoring to read through the mirror her niece’s 
thoughts. She deemed it best to keep silence until 
Gertrude should first speak. She had real affection for 
her niece. Throughout this trip she had, though ever 
watchful, been kind and considerate in her manner to 
her. She had forborne from crossing her in small matters 
and from setting her will in opposition to the girl’s. The 
latter knew her opinion and that was enough. She 
watched and waited the course of events, ever ready 
though to take advantage of any circumstance, should it 
occur, which would enable her to further her niece’s wel- 
fare, That rescuing her from her present position with 


54 


rflE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


its impending dangers would be promoting her welfare 
best, she never for an instant doubted. But how that 
rescue was to be brought about she could not at present 
foresee. She must watch and wait, as heretofore, for the 
present. She kissed the girl, in whose eye a tear glistened, 
but said not a word, and together a few minutes after they 
went down stairs. 

The evening was not a specially bright nor a particu- 
larly unhappy one. The Senator was the only one of the 
party who was in a perfectly contented frame of mind. 
He seemed to have taken a fresh lease of life, in some way, 
at Winnipeg, and since leaving there his spirits had con- 
tinued to rise, until now he seemed the life and soul of the 
party at the combination of dinner and tea — Jemima 
termed it supper — to which they sat down. He recounted 
to his young host his Winnipeg experiences — most of them 
at least — including v^hat he had heard and seen at the 
club. He commented on the fine physique of the men, 
ascribing it in part to the climate and in part to the fresh 
hope ancVvigor which a new life in a new country inspired. 
He even criticized the ladies. The younger ones exhibited 
the same freshness and vigor as the men, but those in 
middle life, he thought, lacked the charm, the softness of 
manner, if he might so term it, of their sisters in the older 
provinces. The Senator became just a trifle confused 
here, but Mrs. Fitzgrace helped him out with a smile, and 
he continued to sail along without further mishap during 
the meal and during the balance of the evening which 
was spent by the party on the verandah. Arthur was too 
obviously nervous and fidgety for sustained conversation 
— even were his conversational powers equal at any time 
to the task. Mrs. Fitzgrace was outwardly serene but 
inwardly anxious. Gertrude was quiet and subdued. 
Arthur made an ineffectual attempt to detach the party 
into pairs. He had, however, made the strategical blunder 
of taking the whole party directly they rose from the table 
out to his garden, so that he could not make that resort 
an excuse for another excursion thither with Gertrude 
alone. He could not offer to take her to the stable. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


55 


A walk down the road which they had so recently driven 
up seemed superfluous, but as his other resources were 
exhausted, he ventured to mildly suggest it. Mrs. Fitz- 
grace said she thought Gertrude must be very tired. 
Gertrude did not deny it and remained seated. Arthur, 
in his new role of host, could not rise and exhibit alacrity 
to leave his elder guests by themselves, though to be sure 
the Senator made no signs of protest. Every avenue 
seemed closed. Arthur was not an inventive genius or it 
might have occurred to him to offer to show the young 
lady something deeply interesting indoors, but it did not 
strike him that there was anything deeply interesting for 
him to show, or if there was, perhaps, he thought Mrs. 
Fitzgrace would desire to see it, too. So he decided to 
make the best of matters and wait the course of events 
until the morrow if need be. At length, as darkness closed 
in Mrs. Fitzgrace asVed her neice if she was tired enou-h 
for bed. “Yes, aunt,” was the quiet response, and the 
ladies rose to retire. Refreshments were proffered and 
declined with thanks, and a moment later the ladies were 
gone, and Arthur remained harassed by doubts as to the 
impression his surroundings — his home environment — had 
made upon the girl he loved. The Senator and he passed a 
half hour over their cigars, and then the former expressing 
also a desire for rest, Arthur escorted him upstairs to his 
chamber. As he descended the young host felt that, but 
for the snores which were proceeding in alternate cadences, 
— like antiphonal chanting — from two pairs of lungs in the 
chamber over the kitchen, where Tom and Jemima were 
sleeping, the house would be as noiseless and lonely as on 
the last night he spent alone there, after the dismissal of 
Joggins and his wife. He went to bed, but sleep mocked 
him. Anxiety as to his impending fate seemed to drive 
out all thought of rest. But he had had a long day com- 
mencing at daylight with preparations for his guests’ ar- 
rival, and a troubled sleep at length fell upon him. He 
dreamed of Gertrude, of her aunt, and of the Senator. He 
thought the latter was driving the girl off over the praiide, 
le^-ving him alone with the aunt, whose brow darkened 


56 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


and face became distorted into frightful shapes. Then she 
too sailed off over the plain. Next Tom and Jemima ap- 
peared with Joggins and his wife in hot pursuit, and he 
alone was left. At length he fell into a deep sleep. 


CHAPTER VII. 

A NIGHT ON THE PRAIRIE. 

Arthur must have slept for some two" hours or more 
when a growl from Sport, lying under the bed, caused him 
to partially open his eyes. The day seemed to be dawning 
as it appeared light without. He closed his eyes again 
when a peculiar crackling sound attracted his attention and 
a loud bark from the dog brought him out of bed and to 
the window. The house was on fire ! ! He saw the fiames 
leaping around the corner of the house near which the 
kitchen joined it, while a great lurid light told him that 
the kitchen itself must be in fiames. Cries from the upper 
portion of this wing told the same tale. His own room was 
fast filling with smoke. In an instant he had donned such 
garments as he could snatch and rushed from his room in one 
of the front corners of the house to the hall, to which, to his 
horror, he saw that the flames had gained access from the rear 
and already encircled the stairs. Back to his room he darted 
• — not daring to open the front door for fear of causing a 
fresh draught. Slamming his own door behind him he w^as 
out of the window in an instant, intent only on one object — 
to gain access to the ladies’ sleeping-room above, from which 
the flames had now cut off access from within. He knew 
just where his only ladder stood against the stable where 
he had seen Tom place it that morning Ob, so far the few 
yards seemed, as he sped over the ground and grasped the 
ladder, swinging it from its resting-place and carrying it 
almost upright towards the house. As he passed the 
kitchen he saw the figure of Tom half out of the upper 
window, his screaming wife behind him. He had only time 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


67 


to cry : “ Drop from the window for your lives ! It’s only 
a few feet !” for the kitchen was lower than the main build- 
ing. “ Gertrude !” he cried wildly, as he stumbled along 
with the weight of the ladder before him. He dropped it 
against the house, under th4i upper window, which it failed 
to reach by some feet. He clambered up. Mrs. Fitzgrace 
had already raised the window to its full height. “She is 
dazed by the smoke and fainting,” she said, pointing into 
the room with one hand, while she held the sash with the 
other. 

“ Quick — descend,” he cried. He leaped into the room 
and Mrs. Fitzgrace made her exit as best she might and 
stood upon the ladder ready to carry her neice to the 
ground. “ No, no,” cried Arthur, “ leave her to me !” Seizing 
the sash with a wrench he pulled it from its place and it 
fell crashing on the floor. He seized the now prostrate 
form of the fainting girl and almost choked with 
the smoke, bore her to the window through which he 
cautiously made his way, just as her aunt reached 
the ground. The fragile form seemed limp and life- 
less in his arms. Merciful heavens, what if she be 
dead ! He almost fell with his burden at the thought, 
then steadying himself with a great effort descended cauti- 
ously and laid the girl on the grass at her aunt’s feet. The 
latter and Jemima, who had dropped unhurt from her 
window, now knelt beside her, while Tom assisted Arthur 
to transfer the ladder to the other side of the house, to 
reach the Senator’s window. Fortunately for him, Mr. 
Watkins’ side of the house was the last w^hich the flames 
attacked, and as Arthur and Tom came round the corner 
with the ladder the Senator was seated on his window 
ledge apparently measuring the distance to' the ground 
with his eye, before venturing on a fall. His travelling 
bag and some garments were already tossed upon the grass. 

“ Mrs. Fitzgrace !” he shouted. 

“ Safe with all the others.” 

As they placed the ladder for him the flames leapt 
round and up the side of the house e-nd over the 
roof. 


68 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


" Oh ! my notebook !” sighed the Senator as he reached 
the ground, remembering that he had left in on the table 
above. 

The flames now leapt and played with the boards and 
rafters of the house as though they were but pasteboard. 
A stiff breeze was blowing, whirling sparks and cinders in 
all directions, but chiefly towards the stable. In its roof 
many holes were already being burnt. Quickly the lad- 
der was transferred to the stable. Arthur armed himself 
with a pail of water and climbed the ladder, while 'lorn 
went in and loosing the affrighted horses with some little 
difficulty got them out. It was too late to save the stable 
however. It was not a large building, and barns there 
were none. From his elevation on the ladder, Arthur saw 
that a greater danger was impending. Here and there 
burning pieces of wood were settling on the ground. Al- 
ready the flames about the house had driven the women 
to the garden where, Gertrude now revived, they stood in 
the safety its surface, free from grass and other dry 
material, afforded. But the flames were now licking up 
the short grass about the house, eating their way in the dir- 
ection the wind blew. The flying cinders were carrying dan- 
ger everywhere in that direction. The weather had been dry 
and the grass everywhere inflammable. Many of the crops 
were fast ripening and could not probably withstand the 
flames. Unless checked at once a flood of fire would be 
let loose upon the country, whose extent no man could tell. 
Arthur rushed into the burning stable, seized some empty 
bags, and arming himself and the other men with these, 
he sent Tom forward to beat out incipient fire wherever he 
could, find it, while the Senator and he attacked the advanc- 
ing flames in the grass about the house. It was a stubborn 
fight. Arthur rushed along the line of fire beating it 
vigorously at every step. The Senator too showed wonderful 
activity for a man of his years, as he plied his sack in the 
face of the advancing foe. The fire continued to gain 
slowly at first but gathering force as it advanced. A broad 
piece of uncultivated prairie land covered with tall grass 
parched by drought, stood not fi:ir off i» rear of tho housoc 


TfiE CAIJADTAN senator. 


59 


If the flames got into this Arthur knew but too well that 
nothing could withstand them. The garden formed an 
obstacle to their advance on the one hand and a small field 
of turnips at some distance oft on the other. Between these 
two oases tlie two men worked with a will. But, as has 
been said, the fire was gaining on then. Had the season 
been more advanced it would possibly ere this have been 
rolling over the plain. Just as Arthur was beginning to de- 
spair of stemming the tide. Providence came to their aid. The 
night was dark and a stiff breeze, as has been said, had 
been blowing. This had suddenly died away and a cloud 
of inky blackness stood over them. A vivid flash and 
an almost simultaneous crash was immediately followed by 
a downpour of drenching rain which drowned the greedy 
flames as effectually as though a tidal wave had struck 
them. Only some smouldering embers of the burned build- 
ings remained alive and these had not long to live. The men 
made their way to the garden, Arthur guiding by shouts 
the others through the drenching storm, and here he soon 
found the three women gathered in a root-house or cellar, 
where the vegetables were kept. Soon all were within 
its welcome shelter, though no one could see another. 
Gertrude’s voice guided Arthur to her and placing his arm 
about her he pressed her to his bosom and kissed her lips, 
and she returned the kiss. He quickly released her however 
as he was drenched with wet and felt her shiver. Neither 
of them spoke — they were too full of emotion at present 
even for that. 

As the Senator stumbled into the root-house he asked 
of the darkness, “ Caroline, are you safe ?” and the darkness 
answered, “Yes, Ezra, peifectly safe.” The two Christian 
names uttered apparently in the voices of the Senator and 
Mrs. Fitzgrace attracted the attention even of the agitated 
young couple standing near. Sudden dangers shared m 
common often create sudden intimacies, but “ Caroline ” 
and “ Ezra ” on the lips of the Senator and Mrs. Fitzgrace 
provoked passing wonder even in the bewildered mind of 
Gertrude. 

“I’m drenched through,” exclaimed Mr. Watkins. 


60 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


An exclamation of “ Oh, you drowned rat !” fyom Jemima, 
seemed naturally directed at the Senator, until certain 
osculatory sounds and the voice of Tom remarking, ‘ It h 
wet, you bet !” told of the reunion of the only married couple 
of the party, and that her exclamation had been called forth 
by the pressure of his dripping arms. 

“ There are some boxes here,” said Arthur, “ on which 
the ladies can sit,” and he felt about until he had secured 
one each for Mrs. Fitzgrace and Gertrude — while Tom 
found one also for his wife. 

“ Have you any idea how this dreadful fire started, Mr. 
Rashfellow,” asked Mrs. Fitzgrace in her clear voice. 

“ Was there fire in the kitchen when you went to bed, 
Jemima?” Arthur asked in turn. 

“ A littler fire in the stove, but I closed the dampers and 
it seemed all safe,” the woman answered. 

Then I fear the house must have been set on fire — 
thought I don’t know who would be capable of such a 
diabolical act. That fellow Joggins is the only person I 
can think of, and I can’t think what object he could have, 
unless revenge, and if that were it, to set the stable on fire 
would have been sufficient, one would think — unless he 
were maddened by drink. If there were anyone about I 
should have expected my dog to have spoken sooner.” 

“ Might he not have recognized by some of the senses 
so keen in a setter those familiar to the place and so lately 
belonging to it, even at night.” 

• “ Possibly — I think the fire must have started near the 
junction of the house and kitchen. A table stands inside, 
near there. Was there a lamp in the kitchen, Tom ?” 

“We left a lamp on the table, but it was put out.*’ 

Further discussion as to the cause of the fire ceased. 
Arthur seated himself on the edge of the box beside 
Gertrude and drew her hand within his and silence reigned 
for some moments. Mrs. Fitzgrace’s voice again pierced 
the darkness. 

“ Had you any insurance ?” she asked. 

“ Not a dollar,” Arthur answered in a woe-begone 
voica 


THE CANAHIAK SENATOR. 


61 


“Very improvident — very,” remarked the Senator. A 
little sympathetic pressure from Gertrude’s hand was the 
poor fellow’s only comfort now. There was a long pause, 
at the end of which Mrs. Fitzgrace said, “ How close and 
stufiy this place is becoming.” 

“ Tom,” said Arthur, “ you’re nearest the door, open it 
a moment*” 

They knew not whether the rain had ceased or not. 
They had shut the door and sealed themselves as securely 
as sardines in a box. A huge mound of earth covered 
their cavern on top and sides. Tom felt about for the door, 
jerked it open, and let in the light of day ! 

It was rather a motley group which emerged from that 
root house into the light. Gertrude and her aunt fortun- 
ately had wraps, which they had thrown about them at 
the first alarm. Jemima had a shawl and petticoat over 
her night dress. Tom and Arthur were in their shirt 
sleeves. The former had no boots, while Arthur had only 
a pair of wigwam slippers into which he had thrust his 
feet as he was quitting his room. The Senator presented 
a not very dignified appearance as he emerged. He had 
had time to don a waistcoat, one fiap buttoned two holes 
below its fellow, and put on boots, and had thrown his 
coat and bag out of the window, but had omitted fastening 
his suspenders in his haste, and these now dangled at his 
heels. His jaunty travelling cap rather added to the 
unsenatorial aspect of his costume. It was difficult for 
even a Senator of the Dominion to emerge from a root 
house into the broad daylight, in this guise, with becoming 
dignity. 

A considerable number of farmers, attracted and alarmed 
by the sight of the fire, which must have been pla'nly 
visible for many miles around, had gathered about the 
place. The whole party was quickly taken charge of by a 
young English friend of Arthur’s and driven to his farm, a 
few miles distant, as fast as a fleet pair of horses could 
carry them. The Senator had meantime recovered his 
coat, soaking wet, and travelling bag, which lay on the 
unburnt portion of the grass below the window. These 


62 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


and Sport, with the horses, were all, save themselyeB 
which had escaped from the burning buildings, now lying 
in smoking ruins. 


CHAPTER VIIL 

THE RETURN. 

“Yes, Gertie, the fates are against me. I have nothing to 
hope for, nothing to look forward to, apart from you, 
dearest. And now if you cast me off, everything worth 
living for will be blotted out! Think of the years I have 
toiled and waited — of the cup of jOy to be snatched from 
my lips, this time you would say forever ! Oh Gertie, I 
have been imprudent, mad — whatever you care to call 
me — but I love you so dearly 1” and the young man hid his 
face in his hands. 

She stifled an inclination to burst into tears and held 
her head up bravely. “I do not reproach you, Arthur 
dear, how couM I ? You have been all in all to me, Arthur, 
as you say I — have been to you — ’’ 

“ I did not say, ‘ have been,' Gertie. I say you are all 
in all to me 1” cried the young man passionately. 

“ Listen, Arthur dear, you say the Fates are against 
you. Say rather that an all-wise Providence ordains that 
you and I should live — apart. It is neither your doing 
nor mine, that this should be so. But is it not inevitable 
that so it must be 

“No! a thousand times no, my darling Gertie !” The 
young man almost shouted. Then checking himself he said 
plaintively “ give me but another trial. Do not cut me off 
from hope forever. I know I have been foolish, rash, im- 
prudent— -everything that you can charge in that w^ay. It 
was worse than folly in me to neglect the ordinary pre- 
caution of prudent people, to insure my property, but I 
never thought ” 

“ Hush, Arthur — dear Arthur — I will hear no more of 
that. If sudden prosperity be your portion in the future 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


63 


1 would not have you think my love depends on that — I 
have loved you— I shall always love you, dearest Arthur,” 
she with difficulty repressed a sob. Then added with 
decision, “ but I am unwilling that you shall in future be 
burdened by one so unfitted by training and in every 
other way to be a farmer’s wife as myself, and I do not 
want to see you give up the life which suits you and in 
which, you have been successful. Some other than I would 
be a help and comfort to you in more ways than I with 
my town training could ever pretend to be. I — I — shall 
never — marry. I can promise you that,” she said smiling 
sadly. “ The time is coming when my father will need me 
at home more than now. My mother is not strong and I 
fear may not live many years. Aunt Caroline cannot be 
considered a fixture there,” — she had reasons which she 
did not mention for thinking this. Arthur thought the 
sooner she ceased to be a fixture the better — “ and what 
would poor papa do without me ? ” 

“ You are determined to throw me over, Gertie ! Would 
to heaven I could persuade you to stay here. I know that 
would be unreasonable to expect. If I continue my farm- 
ing I must be near my farm, and I could not ask you to 
live as I may have to live for some months. When I am 
on my feet once more and have a home to offer you it 
might be otherwise. But if farming life is distasteful to 
you I’ll sell my farm and try my hand at something else. 
I’ll go anywhere, do anything, if only you’ll go with me or 
promise to, after a time — I’d go back to Toronto if I thought 
there was the slightest opening for me there.” 

“ You have made a success of farming, Arthur. Do not 
give it up. Believe me, what I say I’m sure is for the 
best.” 

“What is success to me if you do not share it? I shall 
sell my farm and go further West and try my luck. If I 
make a great strike, perhaps you wont object to my com- 
ing back to try my luck with you again. If I don’t do 
anything much, it won’t matter, I can perhaps get into a 
country where there is plenty of hunting and fishing — I 
may as well die amwg the Indians as elsewhere.” 


64 


THE CANADIAN SENATOH. 


Arthur, you are cruel me to me now.” 

“No more so than you to me ; since you are going off 
this afternoon, abandoning me without hope for the future. 
I have admitted I cannot well press you to stay now. But 
for that disastrous fire, I hope you would have stayed. T 
brought you up here into danger, and gave you a fright 
which I believe is turning your heart against me. Thank 
God I managed to rescue you from a fearful death. Had I 
not, I think I should have thrown myself in the flames as 
well.” 

“ How can I ever forget your noble conduct, Arthur 
dear. You know I never shall. It is to save you from 
having such an incubus as I was that night perpetually 
weighing you down, that I say what I do. I believe I am 
right. I shall never cease to — to think of you, and shall 
pray for your welfare always.” 

“ I see you are bound to give me up, so I had better go 
at once !” and the 3^oung man seized his hat and made for 
the door. There he turned and came back for a moment. 

“ Gertie,” he said, quietly, “ I shall not see you again 
alone. I shall go away too. If I am successful I shall come 
for you again. If I die in the desert you may never know 
it. Good bye,” he took her in his arms and pressed his 
lips to hers. She made no resistance. And so they parted. 

She stood for some time looking out of the window, 
down the broad and then straggling street in Portage la 
Prairie known as Saskatchewan Avenue. They had been 
driven into the Portage the day before, leaving the friendly 
shelter afforded by Arthur’s friends and neighbors, Mr. 
Brown and his wife, a hospitable young English couple, 
who made their stay as pleasant as circumstances would 
allow, during the few hours they remained with them after 
the fire. The Browns had pressed them to stay longer, 
but they were now in need of the trunks they had left at 
the station, and besides that, Mrs. Fitzgrace was anxious to 
get Gertrude out of the neighborhood and on her way home 
as soon as possible. The girl had received t shock from the 
events of the fire which had given her a horror of the site 
of the late lamented prairie cottage, and her aunt thought it 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


66 


well to take advantage of her present feeling to carry hei 
home again. On that evening Gertrude informed her aunt 
of her intentions with regard to Arthur, and, having in- 
dulged in some further confidences, Mrs. Fitzgrace went tc 
sleep with a feeling of security as to her niece, which she 
had not felt for some time before — which led her to aflford 
Gertrude and Arthur the opportunity of spending some time 
alone together to-day in the parlor of this best of Portage 
hotels, though she did not delay preparations for their 
immediate departure. 

Those readers who have perused these pages thus far, 
especially if they be of the fair sex, will have no doubt 
begun to think that this girl was a selfish, heartless, conceited 
namby pamby creature, too selfish to share the burdens of 
the man she said she loved, too heartless to remember his 
constancy and all that he had done for her, including the 
saving of her life, too conceited to become a plain farmer’s 
wife, and too namby pamby to have any patience with ! 
But she was not, and if the gentle lady reader will but put 
herself in her place she will begin to perceive that, although 
she had as yet developed no title to be considered a true 
heroine, she merely shared the weaknesses common to a 
very great many of her sisters the woidd over. 

In the first place she had been constant to this young 
man for a very long time. She had lost other suitors by 
it, for she held herself as “ engaged,” and many of her male 
acquaintances knew it. Then she had been already many 
times disappointed in him and in his power to provide for 
her, and the latter point was more or less still in doubt. 
She knew herself, too, to be not very strong physically, 
and utterly ignorant of the duties of a farmer’s wife. She 
certainly dreaded the loneliness of the life in store for her, 
and Arthur would have been an entertaining and absorb- 
ing husband indeed, should she not realize some of her 
dread in this respect. Her home comforts, her mother’s 
ill health, the conviction that her aunt would not remain 
long with her father in which case her absence would be 
much felt, as indeed in any case it would by him — all com- 
bined to draw her eyes homeward. Then the sight of the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


vast prairie, that dreadful night of the fire, and the shock 
she had received, had both depressed her spirits, and had 
created in her mind the idea that she was to Arthur, whom 
she dearly loved, a species of evil genius, who brought 
him only bad fortune and misery, which would continue 
to harrass him so long as any tie connected them. She 
really thought he would do better without her, as she 
loved him well enough to wish for his welfare before her 
own. Perhaps we shall find that as she came to love him 
‘‘better” — as you gentle reader would term it — she became 
less solicitous for his prosperity apart from herself and 
more anxious to share his lot. Lastly the influence which 
the stronger will of her aunt exerted — albeit only nega- 
tively exerted — over a girl of Gertrude’s temperament can 
scarcely be over estimated. 

As Arthur stood at the hotel door below, a cheery voice 
at his elbow said. 

“ Hello, Rashfellow, you don’t look very badly scorched 
after all !” and looking round he met the clear eye of the 
young Imperial Federat'onist, Mr. Graham of Montreal. 
“ I heard you were burnt out night before last, and had 
had no end of adventures, — ^rescued the young lady from 
the flames ; fought a prairie fire ; that the Senator jumped 
from a two story window, and that you had lost all your 
buildings and crops !” 

“ Almost all true, except about the crops, though ex- 
aggerated. Where did you get the news ?” 

“ In the local paper. It’s flashed all over the country 
by this time. I was very sorry indeed to hear of your 
loss, Rashfellow, and to see that you had no insurance 
either.” 

“ Is that in the papers, too ?’* asked Arthur with a 
groan. 

“ Oh yes, of course it is. Can’t keep anything out of 
the papers nowadays, you know.” 

“ They didn’t say I was going off to— to the Mackenzie 
River basin, did they ?” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


67 


** No. Why do you ask ?” 

“ Because I am going there, or somewhere else.” 

For what ?” 

" For some of the riches we read about, and in search of 
adventure.” 

“ But I thought your crops were saved, and I heard 
you were, going to. be married.” 

Then you heard what isn’t so, Mr. Graham. My crops 
are safe, but I haven’t got a wife — ha ha!” and Arthur 
laughed a very dismal kind of laugh. 

“ Rashfellow,” said the other, with a cordial grasp of 
the hand, ‘'don’t let your troubles overcome you. Never 
say die, even if all your friends seem to be against you.” 

“ Thank you, Graham — but we haven’t all got the hope- 
fulness of you Imperial Federationists, remember,” ans- 
wered Arthur in a more cheerful tone, as he sallied off to 
have his rescued horses put in the waggon which he had 
left in town the previous Saturday to be repaired — in 
order to take a drive out to the farm. 

He returned in time to see Gertrude and her aunt off 
that afternoon. He and the Senator waved their handker- 
chiefs in response to two others which floated from the 
door of the last car as the train sped away, carrying with 
it all the younger man’s hopes in this world he thought. 
Arthur stood watching the train until it became a speck in 
distance. Then turning to meet the Senator who had 
sauntered up the platform, he said, holding out his hand. 

“ Good bye, Mr. Watkins, I understand you go West 
this afternoon. I shall follow you in a day or two, and we 
may meet again.” 

“ I thought you were going to harvest your crops.” 

" I think I can manage with Brown to do that on shares, 
I’m tired of farming and shall try my hand at something 
else. Good bye.” 

“ Good bye,” said the Senator, shaking his head, as he 
looked after the curly haired youth driving off in his 
waggon. “ He’s well named,” he said to himself, " Rash- 
fellow indeed !” and he laughed to himself at his own little 
joke. 


68 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


« « « « « 

The Senator departed a couple of hours later on his 
way across the continent. On this continuation of his trip 
it will not be necessary to accompany him, for it is under- 
stood that he is writing a very full account of it himself, 
much fuller and more readable no doubt than it could be 
made here, which will be given to the public ere long. He 
had accomplished something already, as will presently more 
fully appear. He now set himself to the task of studying 
the country, its people and their several wants. He stop- 
ped at each of the principal points for a day or so, visiting 
several of the Indian Reserves, took a bath or two at Banff*, 
enjoyed the scenery of the Rockies and pulled up finally at 
Victoria, where he spent a fortnight before returning, very 
pleasantly. 

On the return trip an incident occurred to which brief 
reference may be made, as something afterwards turned up- 
on it. The Senator had visited a number of Indian bands 
for the purpose of observing their condition for himself and 
seeing whether any abuses existed. He had interviewed 
Crowfoot and many other chiefs and had of course heard a 
good many complaints of a more or less serious character, 
principally, however, relating to the scarcity of food and 
tobacco, but which in almost all cases the officials on 
the spot were able in some manner to explain away. 
Perhaps t’ e Indians were being well fed and well treated 
Perhaps the officials were too sharp for the Senator. Be 
this as it may, the Senator was returning home with no 
very formidable array of facts to place before the Senate 
and the country, to bring about the amelioration of the red 
man’s condition — when chance threw in his way just such 
a fellow traveller as in his inmost soul he was yearning to 
meet. He got on at a small way station along the line. He 
had not been in the car five minutes when he struck up 
conversation with the Senator. He said he was the Rev. 
Robert MeWhirter. His garb which was of a shiny black 
surmounted by a much soiled linen duster, seemed of a 
clerical style. The absence of a necktie was probably 
due to the lack of laundry facilities in the back country 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


69 


whence he came, but as he wore a shirt which had been 
white and a tolerably white collar, the general eflbct of this 
department was rather clerical than otherwise. He had 
learned who the Senator was from the car porter. Hearing 
that he came from an Indian country, the Senator informed 
him that he had visited a number of bands, and that the 
result of his visits was on the whole not very unsatisfactory. 

“ Ever hear of the Kick aw ays, sir ?” asked the stranger. 

Yes, the Senator said, he had learned of a small band 
of that name, but they were not near the line of railway 
he understood, and he had not consequently paid them a 
visit. Then the Rev. Mr. McWhirter unfolded a tale with 
regard to the condition of the Kickaways which made the 
Senator’s blood boil. Their reserve was on the Little 
Kicking river, they were under Treaty No. 7, and their head 
chief was the notorious Big Kicker. They were in a state 
of starvation, half of the year at least, owing to the in- 
attention or worse, of the officials. What food they got was 
unfit for human beings. Gross immorality prevailed, and 
worse than all, Mr. McWhirter was pained to say it, the 
missionary who was looking after their spiritual wants, was 
neglecting his duty, and the government agent was doing 
worse, sowing the seeds of unbelief among them. He, 
McWhirter, had actually himself seen a copy of Robert 
Ellesmere lying on a desk in his school-room. The Senator 
had never read the work in question, but had heard very 
bad accounts of it. He made a note of this, as well as all 
the other facts elicited from his well informed fellow 
traveller, who went on to say that there was a white child 
in charge of the Indians on the reserve — a little girl, who 
it was supposed had been taken when an infant from some 
settler’s home which the Kickaways had doubtless destroyed 
in the American territories — for they had originally come 
from there. What fate was in store for her, if left in her 
present position, it was easy to foretell. To say 
that the Senator was interested by all this gentleman 
communicated to him is putting it mildly. His sympathies 
were thoroughly aroused^ and had it not been that 
a visit to the reserve would have necessitated his re- 


70 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


turning several hundred miles by rail, and then making 
a journey of several hundreds more across an un- 
inhabited country traversed by several troublesome 
rivers, a journey which Mr. McWhirterhad made but a few 
days before — the Senator said he certainly would have gone 
to the reserve to see for himself that, whereof he had 
been told. However his informant was so fresh from the 
reserve, and gave his facts with such particularity, and 
was withal so respectable and reputable a witness — a min- 
ister he understood him to say, of one of the large Pro- 
testant bodies — that he, the Senator, asked leave to make 
use of the information imparted to him, to which Mr. 
McWhirter readily assented, furnishing also an address 
where he might be communicated with, in case further 
information were required. They parted at Winnipeg, 
where Mr. McWhirter said he had business, the Senator 
pursuing his homeward journey with as little delay as 
possible. 

««»««« 

The following letter from Mrs. Fitzgrace to her brother 
was received by him at Toronto a few days after the de- 
parture of the ladies from the Portage. It will complete 
the account of their north-west trip so far as the reader is 
concerned. 


Winnipeg, July 16th, 1887. 

My Dear William, — As we have made a stoppage for a 
few days here before proceeding on our homeward journey I 
shall devote a portion of it to giving you an account of our 
doings since I last wrote you from this place. I know you 
will be most anxious to hear the result of our trip, so far at 
least as Gertrude is concerned. As we go home by the all 
rail route and intend getting off at Gravenhurst on the 
way down, to join Mary and the children at the cottage, 
while you, I know, will then be in Toronto — I write these 
lines, though by the time they reach you we shall be safely 
housed in Muskoka. To make a long story as short as 
possible, Gertrude is rescued, I felt all along it would bo 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


71 


SO. We spent but one night out on the prairie at the 
place which was to have been her home, and such a night. 
I see there is an account of it in all the papers here, as no 
doubt there will be in the Toronto papers, which, with 
the despatch I sent you from Portage la Prairie, will have 
given you an idea of our terri])le adventure. I am bound 
to say the young man behaved with admirable courage 
and presence of mind in the crisis, as did also Mr. Watkins, 
but you will not be surprised to hear of another instance 
of Arthur’s lack of common prudence and forethought. 
He had not a dollar of insurance on his property ! Well, 
he talks of selling out and going further west, and I am 
sure I wish him no ill fortune. But I am confident you 
will now agree with me that dear Gertrude has had 
a most fortunate escape! I shudder to think what her 
position would be now^ had she come up here as the hride 
of that young man I (“ A rap at me,” said Mr. Southcote 
to himself as he read. “ Perhaps I deserve it.”) And 
now William I have another matter to communicate 
which I trust will not give you pain. (“What’s com- 
ing now ?” thought the lawyer.) When I wrote you 
on Sunday last from here, I told you how kind and 
thoughful Mr. Watkins had been, and how highly I 
had learned to esteem him even on so short an acquaintance. 
On the day after I wrote you that letter, he asked me to 
become his wife and I consented. I know this step will 
surprise you, William. My first experience of married life 
was not so happy a one as to readily induce me to embark in 
the matrimonial ship again. This match, however, seems 
to me so eminently prudent and proper for all parties con- 
cerned, that I have had no hesitation about it. The 
Senator is a dear, good man, much devoted to his public 
duties. He appears to have ample means and no ties, as 
both his children are married and have families of their 
own. He has, I believe, a pleasant home in the maritime 
provinces, where I hope to receive you some day. I hope 
Gertrude will spend a few weeks with us at Ottawa duringthe 
winter, and entre nous I hope I may be able to draw her 
mind away from her past trouble, and perhaps be of assist- 


72 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


ance in seeing her some day established in life with a partner 
worthy of her beauty and position. She is in good health, 
considering the shock she has had and is behaving 
admirably. She gave the young man to understand that 
all must be over between them, I believe. I did not tell her 
of my engagement to Mr. Watkins until the evening 
after the fire, when she told me what her intentions were 
with regard to Arthur. 

We are spending a day or two with our old friends the 
Andrews. We called on them on the way up, and they 
made us promise to stop off with them on our return, and 
I was glad to do so on Gertrude’s account — to give her a 
rest after the exciting scenes she has come through, and if 
possible to divert her mind by seeing the Winnipeg people 
celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee, which they are doing now 
in place of last month, for some reason. They had a pro- 
cession and sham battle yesterday morning, besides making 
a start with their new railway. In the afternoon and 
evening we went to see the regatta. The Winnipeg oarsmen 
were beaten by the Minneapolis men in one of the races I 
think. I’m sure there must have been something wrong. It 
was all very nice. We were in the boat club’s stand, along 
with the select two or three hundred, and thousands looked 
on from stands outside. A military band played on the 
deck of the boat-house — one that was in the rebellion, (the 
band not the boat-house, I mean.) Gertrude seemed 
pleased, and waved her handkerchief when our men won a 
race. The steamboats here are such absurd affairs, with 
wheels behind to push them along. In the evening they had 
fireworks and the bombardment of a fort across the river, 
and blowing up of a vessel. The effect was really pretty. 
Myriads of canoes with Chinese lanterns and little wooden 
floats everywhere on the water with Roman] candles stuck 
in them, sending up colored balls in every direction. The 
men here are almost all handsome. I don’t think I shall go 
again to-day. It is so far away over the Assinoboyne, (I 
never feel sure of my spelling that dreadful name.) I shall 
get Gertrude to go with the others though. 

The Senator and I will be married as soon as he returns. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


73 


How and where, will be settled when I reach home. He 
wished me to be married on the spot and accompany him 
across the continent, but of course my duty to you and to 
(jrertrude would not allow of that. Good bye, until we 
meet in Musk oka — we leave day after to-morrow — and be- 
lieve me, my dear brother, your affectionate sister. 

Caroline Fitzgrace. 

When Mr. Southcote had finished the letter he leaned 
back in his office chair for a few moments. It was vaca- 
tion and he had time to read the letter and to think it 
over a little. But for some urgent private business he 
would not be in town now. The click of a solitary type 
writer in the outer oflSce, the tinkle of a street car bell in 
the street below were the only sounds to break his reverie. 
“ The longest letter I ever got from Caroline in my life. 
I’m half sorry, and yet after all relieved to think that 
Gertrude and Arthur have given it up. Though the poor 
girl may die an old maid, she’ll be a great solace to her 
father’s old age. And Caroline’s to marry Senator 
Watkins ! It will be a case of ambition gratified with her 
I trust. The ‘how and where’ are to be settled by her when 
she comes. Many another how and where will be settled 
by her for you hereafter, my dear Senator, or my name’s 
not William Southcote ! By day after to morrow they 
should be at my island home in Muskoka. I think I must 
run up in a day or two ” — and the lawyer returned to the 
perusal of some further correspondence. 


CHAPTER IX. 

IN MUSKOKA. 

As the trim little Muskoka steamboat drew up at the 
wharf of one of her stopping places on a certain warm 
afternoon late in July, a handsome bright-eyed, brown- 
haired youth of from fifteen to sixteen years, stood among 


74 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


the little crowd of expectants who had come to meet her. 
His face and hands were sunburnt. He wore a straw hat 
with a gay ribbon, an equally gay neck tie in a loose sailor 
knot, a suit of flannel and light leather shoes. He looked 
up and smiled, and nodded pleasantly to the handsome 
middle aged lady and the pretty hazel eyed girl who looked 
at him over the rail from the upper deck. By the time 
the boat had sputtered and fussed herself up alongside the 
landing place the two ladies had descended and stood ready 
for the plank to be thrown out, and a moment or two later 
the lad was locked in his sister s arms, receiving next a kiss 
from his aunt. 

“ The skiff is here,” he said. “ I’ll get your light luggage 
and Robert can come over again for the trunks.” 

“ Oh, how is mother, Frank ?” asked Gertrude as they 
were preparing to embark in the skiff which was drawn up 
at the side of the wharf. 

“ About as usual,” Frank replied. “ The Guv nor has not 
returned yet. He went to town some days ago, but we 
expect him to-morrow.” 

The aunt settled herself at the helm. Gertrude took 
the forward seat, while Frank adjusted the rowlock pins 
in place, and bared his well trained arms for a good pull. 
It was some two miles to the little island where stood their 
cottage, out of the steamer’s course. There was still a full 
hour or two of warm sunshine, so the lad cast off the 
superfluous flannel coat, which he had put on in honor of 
the occasion. The loose flannel shirt with broad rolling 
collar, and the leather strap which served, with the aid of 
an occasional hitch with both hands, to keep his weather- 
beaten and water-stained nether flannels in place, gave 
free play to the lithe young limbs, and soon the skiff was 
spinning over the smooth surface of the lake. 

“ Oh, let me put in the forward oars,” exclaimed Gert- 
rude, “ I would so like to have a row !” 

“ No, no,” put in Frank authoritatively, "do you sup- 
pose I’d let those cottagers at Ellesmere see my sister row- 
ing herself home after coming all the way from the north- 
west 1” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


75 


He glanced at the shore where stood a number of 
summer cottages, their gay flags floating, while nurses and 
children disported themselves on the beach. 

Mrs. Fitzgrace said she thought, after the fatigues of 
the journey, Gertrude had better reserve her strength for 
the morrow, and the latter, seeing that her young brother 
would feel hurt if she persisted, restrained the impulse to 
seize the oars and indulge in a little exercise after the 
conflnements of travel. Frank, however, was equal to the 
task before him, and bent to his oars and rowed with a 
sweeping stroke which fast shortened the distance between 
them and Southcote Island. 

“ I think j^ou’re improving in your rowing, Frank,” said 
Mrs. Fitzgrace approvingly. 

The boy’s face already red with heat took a fresh flush 
of pride at the compliment. “ That’s the Hanlan stroke,” 
he said proudly, “ but of course a fellow can’t do himself 
justice without a sliding seat,” and he redoubled his 
efforts. 

Gertrude who had been turning constantly to look at 
the still distant but familiar outlines of the island, now 
exclaimed, “ I think I see some one on the point ; who can 
it be ?” 

Frank’s eye kindled with the light of mischief as he 
heard this, but he made no reply — he was too busy 
rowing. 

“Yes,” she added presently, “ there s a man on the 
point. Can it be Robert ? No, it’s too large for Robert, 
and he’s signalling us, I do believe ! Look aunt, he’s waiv- 
ing a handkerchief to us.” 

Mrs. Fitzgrace had unfortunately lost her gold-rimmed 
glasses in the fire, but had provided herself with another 
pair at Winnipeg, which, if not quite so ornamental and 
highly respectable in appearance, were just as strong as 
the old ones. She adjusted them and took a long look at 
the distant island. “ I think I see some one,” she said at 
length. “ Yes, larger even than William, I should say.” 

“ How persistently he waves that handkerchief. Oh, 
Frank, can anything be wrong !” cried Gertrude. 


76 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Frank laughed outright. “ No,” he gasped, " he's only 
glad to see you.” 

Then Mrs. Fitzgrace took another look through her 
glasses. “ He’s as dignified as the Senator,” she remarked. 

“ But he never lowers his arm at all. He’s got a high hat 
on — must have just come from town. Why does he keep 
standing there though ? He doesn’t seem to move a muscle. 
Oh, Frank, I do believe its some prank of yours and Kate’s ! 
You’ve been dressing up Robert — no it’s too large for 
him.” 

Frank was by this time so exhausted between rowing 
and suppressed merriment that he was obliged to take a 
rest and indulge in a fit of boyish hilarity. Then seizing 
the oars he bent again to his work and presently they were 
alongside the point, a huge rook, on top of which stood the 
effigy of a man carefully clad in Mr. South cote's island suit 
of clothes, which he always left behind him, and topped by 
an old and well worn silk hat. A handkerchief ffuttered 
at the end of the outstretched arm. A young girl of twelve 
bounded out from behind the rock at the sound of the oars 
and clapped her hands in glee. 

“ Oh, Gertrude, — Aunt Caroline ; were you very much 
frightened ? I made half of him.” and she rushed towards 
the landing place shouting at every step. She was a rosy 
little round-faced girl, not much resembling Gertrude either 
in features or figure. 

“ Who did you say he looked like. Aunt Caroline ?” 
asked Frank, putting down his oars. 

Aunt Caroline actually blushed ! but she only said, 
“ How could that absurd thing resemble anybody !” and 
stepped ashore. 

The island was composed principally of rock, with just 
enough earth on its surface and in its crevices to allow of 
some greer sward, a few fiower beds and a small kitchen 
garden. Quite a grove of trees, in some places dense 
enough to be termed thickets, managed to cling to the 
rock, spreading their roots over its surface and shoving: 
them down into any crack or crevice they could find. In 
many places they had not soil enough to decently cover 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


77 


their extremities, which stood out in naked protest against 
the poverty of the soil. The cottage was a roomy frame 
structure with a verandah running around three sides and 
French windows opening upon it. 

The veritable Robert, a young lad engaged from the 
neighborhood to look after the garden, row the boat when 
required, and for other light duties, now appeared and 
started on a return trip for the trunks of the ladies ; who, 
with little Kate between them, made their- way to the 
house, where they found Mrs. Southcote lying upon a sofa 
reading. Gertrude knelt down, and, throwing her arms 
about her, kissed her tenderly.’ Mrs. Fitzgrace waited until 
she made an effort to arise and then met her half way, 
as it were, with a kiss. 

“ You’d be better on the verandah, Mary,” she said. The 
mother was, however, intent upon Gertrude just now, as 
with tear-dimmed eyes she gazed into the girl’s face as she 
knelt beside her. Gertrude burst into tears, and buried 
her face in her mother’s lap. 

“ There, there, my darling daughter, you are tired. You’ll 
feel better when your things are off and you have a cup 
of tea.” She knew full well that it was not fatigue alone 
that ailed the girl. 

“ Oh, mother, mother,” was all that Gertrude could 
murmur. Mrs. Fitzgrace had withdrawn to her own 
accustomed room, and mother and daughter were left alone. 
They kissed and fondled one another as only mother and 
daughter can. 

“ My dear, dear daughter. This world is full of sorrows 
and disappointments. You are having your share now, I 
know full well. But you must not give way. You are 
young and strong, and these trials and disap i ointments 
will reveal themselves as blessings bye and bye, if you put 
yourself in the hands of One who is stronger and wiser 
than we.” The mother and daughter possessed a common 
bond of religious feeling, and the former felt this to be the 
safest, the only chord to touch just now. As she stroked 
the girl’s hair, she continued to pour out the sympathy for 
whickshe knew the daughter’s heart yearned. Presently the 


78 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


paroxysm over, Gertrude bethought herself of her mother a 
weakness and how it had ever been their care to preserve 
her as much as possible from trouble and worry, so with 
an effort she roused herself, dried her eyes and arose. 

“ How selfish of me, mother, to worry you in this way,’' 
she said, “ I’m tired out, I believe, and will be better after 
a cup of tea, as you say, and a rest,” and she withdrew. 

Poor Gertrude ! This was but the beginning of many 
days of bitter sorrow and struggle. She had cut herself 
free from the anchor of Hope, as it seemed, and was now 
adrift. She had never quite touched the feeling of hope- 
lessness before. There had always been the one attach- 
ment since childhood to which she had clung, and now 
that she had cut the cord, she knew not how to supply its 
place. The thought that she had been cruel and heartless 
to the one she had loved so steadfastly and so well, began to 
oppress her and to drive out every other thought. Why 
had she gone to the north-west at all if she were not pre- 
pared to stay there ? How empty and vain seemed her 
reason for casting Arthur off. Was it because she was so 
selfish, that she could not endure the life he had with such 
infinite pains provided for her? Was it because of that 
wretched fire in which he had shown such heroism ? If so 
what a mockery such love as hers must have seemed to 
him, to desert him in the hour of need ? These heart- 
searchings, once began, never seemed to cease. 

The coming of her father the day after their arrival, 
made a slight break, but their lives settled down quietly 
to the old pastimes, now so long and so well known. 
Boating, fishing, bathing, reading, dozing in hammocks 
beneath the trees, an occasional trip across the lake or to a 
neighboring island to visit friends, or to the nearest church 
for service, these were the chief occupations of life at and 
about Southcote Island. A couple of schoolboy friends 
of Frank’s came, and with the three boys and little Kate, 
Gertrude managed to pass many hours upon the water, or 
exploring the main land, hours which would otherwise have 
hung, oh, so heavily on her hands. 

Meantime the Senator had been heard from more than 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


79 


once. He would soon be here on his homeward journey and 
he pleaded that the consummation of his happiness might 
not be delayed. It would be yet quite a journey from this 
to his home by the Atlantic and it would be too bad to send 
him home and bring him back again. But for the distance 
Mrs. Fitzgrace said she would have done so, as she would 
have preferred being married in good orthodox style in the 
city church with full choir accompanient, and plenty of 
carriages and wedding favors. As it was she could not ask 
her brother to open the house, which was closed, and take 
the family to town — especially Mrs. Southcote. There 
would be the difficulties of the wedding breakfast and 
and a score of other things which would keep the family 
in town some time, at great inconvenience to all. To be 
sure she could go there and be married quietly, but that 
would be no advantage over a wedding here, so the matter 
was finally arranged. The ceremony would be performed 
at the church at Ellesmere, followed by a wedding break- 
fast on the island. 

The preparation of a trousseau suitable to her future 
position, made it necessary for Mrs. Fitzgrace to go a couple 
of times, in as many weeks, to Toronto. Gertrude was in- 
duced to accompany her on one of those trips. On the 
train she saw a face before her which brought at once 
recollections of Arthur, and presently she recalled one of 
the fellow passengers on their trip to the north-west, with 
whom she and her aunt had but a bowing acquaintance. As 
she made a slight sign of recognition, the gentleman bowed 
and came forward. 

“We met on the boat, I believe,^’ said Mr. Graham with 
a pleasant smile — for it was he. “May I ask whether you 
have suffered any ill effects from the fire and its attendant 
exposure ? ” 

“ None whatever, thank you,” Gertrude answered. Then 
she looked up at the frank face of her questioner as though 
she would ask a question too. Perhaps he read her 
thoughts, for he said : “ Mr. Rashfellow went west two 
days after your departure from the Portage. I happened 
to be there at the time, but did not learn his destination— » 


80 


THE CANAHIAH SENATOR. 


in fact, I rather imagine he had no fixed plans from what 
little conversation we had. He let his farm to a neighbor, 
Mr. Brown I believe, who will harvest his crops on shares. 
He seemed in good health ” — truth compelled him to omit 
the customary accompaniment — “ and spirits.” 

After a word or two with Mrs. Fitzgrace who did not 
seem in a specially gracious mood, Mr. Graham returned to 
his seat and book. “ The old lady evidently did not care 
anything about that young man,” he said to himself, “ but 
the girl has not forgotten him, and I read a suspense in her 
eye which I was bound to relieve, though all the aunts on 
earth frowned on me !” 

Gertrude gazed out of the window for most of the 
journey after this. Graham saw her look towards him 
once, as if she would like to ask further information, but 
catching his eye she quickly resumed her gaze through the 
window. So Arthur had gone west, out into the wilder- 
ness, or among the Indians perchance. Oh, how bitter 
must be his feeling now towards her who had broken up 
his home! So self reprochful was she now that she forgot 
all about the fire and its difl&culties, and thought of herself 
only as one who had deserted her lover and was worthy only 
of his contempt. Perhaps he would find some Indian 
maiden who would be more steadfast and ready to help 
him in his struggles than she. The Indian women she had 
always heard of as the embodiment of constancy, and had 
she not herself said to him in that memorable interview 
that he might become happy and prosperous with some other 
than herself ? And yet the idea of the Indian maiden was 
by no means comforting to her. Nothing was comforting. 
Her religious feeling might have consoled her, had she been 
simply the victim of circumstances, but she was beginning to 
look upon herself as the cause of her own and her lover s 
misery, and with such thoughts, it was much more difl&cult 
to console herself by religious resignation. Her conscience 
would not permit her to feel even the consolation of mar- 
tyrdom. She began to hate herself, and yet she hated the 
Indian maiden, too I 

A short time after their return to the island, the 
Senator came and put up at the hotel at Ellesmere. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOB. 




CHAPTER X. 

THE WEDDING. 

The wedding morn was bright and cloudless. There was 
just breeze enough blowing to slightly stir the surface of 
the lake and cause the little steam launch which bore the 
bridal party towards Ellesmere to feel its motion. This 
craft was gay with bunting, and white ribbons fluttered 
from the supports of its awning. Mr, and Mrs, Southcote, 
Gertrude and Katey, with the bride, were its passengers, 
while Frank and his boy friends followed in the skiff*. Mrs. 
Fitzgrace wore a becoming travelling dress and bonnet of 
grey. She possessed rare taste in dress and had allowed 
no feminine weakness to betray her into unnecessary per- 
sonal adornment. Handsome was her appearance and 
proud her carriage, indeed, as leaning on her brother’s 
arm she entered the little church, which stood but a few 
steps from the landing, a few moments after their arrival 
there. Mrs. Southcote, who seldom left the island during 
her period of residence there, had made a supreme effort on 
this occasion. She was dressed in the simple costume which 
she wore on those rare occasions when she attended church. 
Frank, in his Sunday best, proudly escorted her; while 
Gertrude in a gauzy summer costume decked with a few 
flowers and looking very pretty, laughingly took the arm of 
Charley, Frank^s eldest boy friend, leaving Bob, his com- 
panion and Katey to bring up the rear. In this order they 
entered the church, where the clergyman and bridegroom, 
who had been able to watch the approach of the bridal 
party across the water, awaited them. The entire summer 
population of Ellesmere, with many from more distant 
points on the lake, was gathered in and around the church 
in all the glory of straw hats, flannels and jerseys. They 
scrutinized with curiosity the bridegroom, whose grey 
close cut hair, black frock coat and silk hat were upon 
the whole commented favorably upon — a few whispered 
comments as to the companionship of ‘*grey hairs and 


82 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


folly,” and a stealthy reference by one or two of 
the elder unmarried ladies to the adage, “no fool like 
an old fool” — alone excepted. On the whole the as- 
semblage was a good natured one, grateful for the un- 
wonted excitement afforded them by so unusual an event 
as the present, and full of compliments on the appearance 
of the ladies. The bride’s stately appearance left nothing 
to be desired, while many an admiring glance, from 
the bronzed youths in lawn tennis and boating costumes 
of every variety, fell upon her neice. To more than 
one the thought presented itself that his manly form 
alongside that of this brown-haired beauty would form 
a more appropriate head to the bridal procession than 
did the Senator as he marched proudly forth a short 
time later with his handsome wife on his arm. 

The ceremony was quickly and quietly performed. 
Katey and Bob inspired from some unknown source had, 
before setting out, armed themselves each with a large 
basket of flowers, wherewith their design was to strew the 
path of the bride and groom. As there was a good bit of 
path to strew, the baskets were large, and as they were 
large, they left them for convenience sake in the church 
porch. The ceremony over Kate and Bob made a dash for 
the porch. The former secured her basket, but the latter 
saw a small boy in blue jerseys in the act of walking off 
with his, to whom he gave chase. The little boy in blue 
was an expert runner and led Bob a long and circuitous 
chase backward and forward, here and there, while the 
shower of flowers from this basket increased as the chase 
became the hotter, ending only when the basket and the 
thief were both exhausted, and the latter held aloft the 
former bottom upward with a merry laugh, cut short by a 
hearty shaking from Bob, who was heard to state that the 
punishment would have been much more severe had the 
occasion been other than it was. Katey meantime set her- 
self assiduously at her task single handed, so that two 
distinct paths of flowers were soon laid out upon the 
ground. The bridal party, which divided with the boys’ 
chase, the attention of the spectators, took the straight and 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR, 


83 


narrower path laid out by Katey, the efforts of the Sena- 
tor to avoid stepping on the flowers being the only thing 
which detracted from the dignity of his deportment. A 
committee of youths had meantime taken charge of the 
bell rope and were causing the little bell above the church 
entrance to dance merrily, though rather spasmodically, as 
the rope changed hands, and to turn back sommersaults as 
if in a perfect ecstacy of merriment, as it gave forth its 
tinkling clamor. 

The young clergyman had quickly doffed his surplice 
and made strides for the steam launch aboard which the 
bridal party and a select company of invited guests were 
now gathered. As she steamed off it was seen that almost 
the entire population had taken to the water, as if by some 
concerted action previously arranged ; and small yachts, 
skiffs, sail boats and canoes, each with some bit of bright 
color either at the bowsprit or masthead, or about the 
persons of the crew, gathered in a bright flotilla and mov- 
ing out, formed a passage way for the steam launch, greet- 
ing her with cheers and waving handkerchiefs as she 
passed between. 

“ Very graceful and polite, Fm sure !” said the Senator 
who took off his hat and bowed his acknowledgements, 
" yes, very ” he added turning to the party around him, 
“now, would you believe it, the last time 1 was married 
something like this occurred, but the fishermen who took 
part in it — it was down at my place by the sea — were not 
all as polite as these gentlemen. I was in the thick of 
politics then and one political opponent in the little fleet 
of fishermen's boats through which we were passing flung 
a fresh fish at me or my bride with such force thsit it 
carried away my hat ! Of course he said afterwards that 
he was only tossing us a wedding present, — but I knew 
better than that !” 

The present bride’s effort to appear pleased with this 
reminiscence was so palpably ineffectual that no one 
ventured to encourage any further explanations regarding 
the interesting event to which it related. “ The last time 
he was married ! ” one of the lady guests scornfullj^ ex- 


84 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


claimed to her lord some hours after, ** the man spoke as 
if it were an annual occurrence I’* “ He was no doubt think- 
ing more of some old political fight than of the occasion,” 
replied the husband, “ now there will be little danger of my 
making such a mistake.” “Well upon my word !’ began 
the lady — but this is digressing from our narrative. 

An ex-lieutenant governor, an adept in diplomacy, who, 
with his wife, graced the present party, came to the rescue 
of the unconscious and happy Senator, by an enquiry con- 
cerning his trip across the continent. 

“ Yes,” said the Senator, “a most enjoyable and instruc- 
tive tiip. I inspected the line pretty thoroughly. Those 
C. P. K folk have accomplished a great work, but it* has 
cost a pretty penny, and there are some pretty stiff grades 
and some scamped work too, which somebody will hear 
about. I could not visit the Mackenzie basin this time, 
because I could not induce Mrs. Watkins to accompany me 
then, and I was too anxious for this day to arrive, to risk 
postponement.” The Senator bowed gallantly to his bride, 
who smiled and looked gracious once more, “ but I learned a 
good deal about the Indians, and have possessed myself of 
information which I deem valuable.” 

“ Which you may bring to the attention of Parliament 
later on,” suggested Mrs. Watkins, encouraging^. 

“ Perhaps so, my dear, perhaps so,” returned the Sen- 
ator, in high good humor, while a twinkle in the eye of the 
diplomatist, who had known the Senator a quarter of cen- 
tury, and was well versed in Parliamentary life, indicated 
that he anticipated more of amusement than instruction 
from Mr. Watkins’ threatened attack on the administration. 

“ Political conversation is hardly the thing in pre- 
sence of a bride,” he said apologetically, “ and I fear I’m 
guilty of introducing it indirectly, Mrs. Watkins, by draw- 
ing out your husband on the north-west, but I see the 
other ladies have not been following us, and you, Mrs. 
Watkins, I can see, will take a deep interest in public 
affairs, to the advantage of the country,” he added grace- 
fully. 

“ Here we are, Watkins. Now^ ladies, not all at once,” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR 


85 


cried Mr. Southcote, as the boat drew up at the island 
landing. 

The breakfast which followed was a great success. The 
delicacies had been brought up from Toronto by a noted 
caterer, whose skill was apparent on every hand. Mrs. 
Watkins’ hrm hand divided the wedding cake without a 
mishap, and the company was a merry one by the time the 
champagne had been quaffed in her honor, after a short 
and appropriate speeeh from the parson. The Senator 
made a lengthy, but on the whole a satisfactory reply, and 
more, perhaps, from good luck than good management, 
failed to touch upon any ground so dangerous as that he 
had trodden upon at the start across the water. The ex- 
Governor and Mr. Southcote added a few well chosen 
words, and the bride and groom rose to make some 
slight preparations for their departure. A half an hour 
later the steam launch was hurrying them towards the 
Ellesmere wharf, where lay the steamboat waiting their 
arrival, to take them on the initial wedding trip around 
the lakes, the particulars of which had not been divulged, 
but which it was understood was to terminate at some 
point within easy reach of a railway station, where their 
journey towards the sounding sea would begin. 

The steam launch returned to the island and bore off 
the majority of the guests, the young clergyman, however, 
remaining until evening, to be rowed across by the boys 
after sundown. 

The departure of her aunt meant a collapse for Gertrude. 
The removal of the stronger will was inevitably followed 
by a relapse of the weaker. At least so it seemed just now. 
So complete was this relapse that she would have written 
Arthur to beg forgiveness for her desertion of him, had she 
known his whereabouts, but not a word had she heard of 
him since she had parted from him save that which Mr. 
Graham had communicated to her on the train. He was 
never out of her thoughts now, and the theory of the 
Indian maiden was taking possession of her imagination 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


— not that she pictured him marrying a full blooded 
untutored daughter of the wilderness ; but she knew there 
were metis or halfbreeds having more or less intimate 
relations with their more savage progenitors. She had had 
some ladies pointed out to her in the north-west as possess- 
ing Indian blood who were not by any means ill-looking, 
who seemed very soft mannered. Might some such an one 
not be met with on the confines of civilization, with whose 
superior usefulness, if not superior graces, her Arthur 
would become enamored ? With such conjectures and 
imaginings, the poor girl tortured herself day after day and 
night after night. 

Gertrude possessed a light canoe in which it was 
her wont to paddle herself at times alone along the 
shores of the island and often out into the lake. 
In this she would now often paddle to some quiet nook 
where lying in the shadow of the bank, her head resting 
on a cushion, she would dream the hours away. At other 
times she would take a book into the grove, and, sitting 
down under a tree, make an effort to read, only to drop the 
volume in her lap while she looked out into the hazy 
atmosphere across the lake, her thoughts still farther away. 
Occasionally she dropped asleep in her hammock by day, 
but dreams disturbed her rest, and she preferred her 
waking thoughts to them. 

Mr. Southcote was not slow to observe that Gertrude was 
unhappy. In former days, when Arthur was in the north- 
west, he had not forbidden communication between them, 
and a correspondence had been kept up. Even when he 
returned the second tiir e to Winnipeg he had not ceased to 
write her, though whether through the influence of 
her aunt or from some cause he had not received very 
frequent letters in return. Now of course no such letters 
reached her. They had served to keep up her spirits in the 
former days. 

“ Gertrude is unhappy, William,” said Mrs. Southcote 
in her quiet voice. "I do believe she would have been 
better off had she married him and made the best of life 
out there.” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


87 


** But, my dear, the house was burned over their heads, 
you are forgetting that,’' replied her husband, anxious to 
justify his refusal to sanction the marriage before they set 
out, in his own eyes as well as in his wife’s. 

“ Ah yes, I know William, they would have had a 
struggle, perhaps harder than she could bear, but the poor 
girl is wretched I know.” 

“ I see that myself. I think we had better return to 
town a week or two earlier this year. I have usually 
tried to save you the crowds and bustle of the Exhibition 
time. It seems to me we might return before the Exhibi- 
tion opens this year. Perhaps the stir of the town will do 
her good. I have one or two business trips to take within 
a few weeks, too, and shall try and persuade her to accom- 
pany me. Then during the winter her aunt wishes her to 
visit Ottawa and life there will be new to her. Things will 
all come out for the best my dear.”. 

That is what I often tell her. I have that blessed 
assurance myself, but it seems gone from her just now 
completely. The change, as you say, may do her good, 
however.” 

The second week in September found them back in their 
comfortable Toronto house. 

Under the escort of her father and Frank, Gertrude 
“ did ” the Exhibition thoroughly. She went through the 
main building, dutifully examining every exhibit, as they 
moved along in the crowded procession of sight-seers, 
round and round, floor after floor, stopping to watch the 
operations of the loquacious young ladies who manipulated 
the sewing machines and type writers, luring the piano 
and organ men from their stools by a question, that they 
might lessen the deafening sounds arising from this depart- 
ment, criticising the needle work, and gazing at articles at 
whose use she could only guess, while she accepted 
mechanically the printed advertisements thrust into her 
hand at every turn. They walked through the machinery 
hall, the carriage hall, the horticultural hall, where the 
bright flowers gave her a passing delight. They looked at 
the poultry and even visited the cattle sheds, and watched 


88 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


from their carriage the acrobatic performances, as well as 
the races in the horse ring. The beauty of many of the 
splendid horses pleased Gertrude, but the vast sea of 
humanity which the grand stand presented positively 
frightened her. The music of the many bands raised her 
spirits, as music always gave her pleasure. They listened 
to the best, and kept at a safe distance from the others, 
Mr. Southcote kept her at the task of sight seeing during 
several days at intervals, sending her with Frank when he 
could not himself go to the Exhibition grounds, and taking 
her out even by night to see the fireworks and the evolu- 
tions of the troops by electric light. He developed into a 
most persistent pleasure seeker, and at even the theatre 
and concert halls, which ordinarily he rarely visited, he 
became a constant attendant, mingling in the well dressed 
throng with his pretty daughter, whose beauty was by no 
means unobserved, as her recent experiences had rather 
increased than diminished the attractiveness of her appear- 
ance. Invitations to all manner of society events and 
other social attentions were not by any means wanting, 
but Gertrude preferred the society of her father when 
abroad, and her mother at home, to all others, at this period, 
and to them her wish was now law. 

A fortnight later she accompanied her father on a busi- 
ness trip to some neighboring American cities. Detroit’s 
neatness and its stately river teeming with marine life, 
pleased her. Thence in a luxurious steamer to Cleveland 
by night, passing down the beautiful Detroit river, the 
historic old Canadian town of Amherstburg, the archi- 
pelago of Put-in-Bay, ever alive by day with excur- 
sion boats and bands, on to Cleveland, where she en- 
joyed a drive through its stately Euclid avenue, and 
a morning stroll about the streets and through the 
square, with lofty trees and exultant Perry monu- 
ment, chronicling the victory of the American Commodore 
over the British on the lake — then on by rail to Buffalo 
they sped. Here they took only a few hours’ rest at a 
sumptuous hotel, a walk through the busy streets, and a 
glance at the towering city hall, which served to heighten 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


89 


the enjoyment of a quiet day at the Falls of Niagara, 
whose grandeur never palls, and is perhaps best enjoyed 
when the autumn tints have transformed the foliage of 
the trees to soft reds and yellows mingled with the green. 
AlS they crossed the lake next day and entered the bay, to her 
ever beautiful and beloved, Gertrude thanked her father 
for a pleasant week's trip, which she said she had enjoyed 
exceedingly ; the healthy flush on her cheek, and the 
lustre of her hazel eyes corroborating her testimony that 
the little excursion had done her much good. He looked 
at her fondly and said that he too had enjoyed the brief 
change. His design was obviously to keep her mind and 
body in motion until she had regained her wonted spirits, 
and that zest for life which healthy youth should possess. 

Thus the autumn months passed by. The New York 
trip was duly carried out. It was a period of unceasing 
kindness and consideration for Gertrude, whose heart was 
touched, but its soreness ,when she had time to think, was 
as before. That it would never heal she now firmly be- 
lieved. 


CHAPTER XI. 

OTTAWA DURING THE SESSION. 

The session of the Dominion Parliament opened in the 
winter following the events narrated in previous chapters, 
with the customary pomp and circumstance. The cannon 
boomed, the band played. His Excellency with his staff* 
proceeded to the Senate Chamber, the faithful comitioners 
were summoned and the speech read with all the customary 
formalities. These have been so fully and faithfully recorded 
in the newspapers, which year after year down to the pre- 
sent day have presented their readers with full details of 
this great functon of State, that it would be a work of 
supererogation, which the reader might justly resent, to 
describe it again. 

Ope of the foremost among those who followed the 


90 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Speaker of the Commons to the Senate Chamber, was a 
young member of thirty-five years or thereabouts of dis- 
tinguished mien and fashionably dressed. He had a quick, 
dark eye, his features were well cut, and his moustache and 
whiskers trimmed after the latest mode. His dark hair 
which was wavy, when his hat was removed showed 
little of the ravages of time. Scarce a grey hair as yet 
appeared, and a slight tendency to baldness above the 
temples on either side of a rather lofty and well formed 
brow, was the only sign, save a slight thinness at the apex 
of the crown, of the capillary weakness so common among 
parliamentarians. Perhaps a longer parliamentary life (for 
this was but his second Parliament) and a more frequent use 
of his hat in the House — for he as yet availed himself 
but seldom of that privilege — would remedy this apparent 
anomaly of a thick head of hair in the appearance of a 
member of Parliament. The ladies, however, who eyed him 
from the galleries with a good deal of interest, for he was 
young, wealthy and unmarried, were inclined to think his 
remaining always uncovered in the House was studied, 
both with a view to the preservation of his head from bald- 
ness and for effect upon themselves. Be this as it may, it 
cannot be denied that Mr. George Hatfield, the young 
maritime province member, was considered one of the best 
looking, most.popular and withal one of the cleverest of the 
younger members of the Commons. As soon as he was 
within the Chamber, on the present occasion, he shoved a 
single eyeglass, which he took from his waistcoat pocket, 
into his right eye and began a quiet survey of the scene. 
He glanced but for a moment at the Governor-General and 
his brilliant staff and the other dignitaries about the throne. 
His eye quickly wandered over such of the fair shoulders 
of the ladies as he could, by rising on tiptoe, bring within 
his range of vision, until it seemed to reach the objects of 
his search — two ladies in a prominent position, who were 
already receiving more than a fair share of the attention of 
their neighbors. 

“Who are they?” whispered the wife of a Cabinet 
Minister of her daughter who was beside her. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


91 


“ Senator Watkins' bride, and her niece I believe," was 
the whispered reply, “ rather severe looking isn’t she ? — but 
handsomely dressed.” 

“ Yes, the girl is very pretty though.” 

Scarcely as complimentary were the remarks of some 
of the ladies farther back. 

“ Who is that bold looking woman forward there, with 
the pretty girl on her left ?” demanded the wife of a mem- 
ber of her neighbor, with a slight motion of her fan in the 
direction indicated. “Oh — indeed,” she added, with in- 
creased interest as she received the required information, 
“ the dear old Senator,” — then after another look — “ I pity 
him 1 He’ll have to mind his p’s and q’s now, I fancy. He 
used to be quite attentive to me in former sessions, do you 
know. That’ll be all over with now if I read that woman’s 
face aright. The girl is very handsome though. I see Mr. 
Hatfield back there with his eyeglass focussed on them. 
He’s struck already, I believe !” 

“Nonsense!” rejoined the other lady, who was some- 
what younger and better looking and had received some 
attention from Mr. Hatfield, which she seemed loath to 
forget, “he’s a nephew of Senator Watkins, don’t you 
know, and it’s only natural he should look at his new aunt 
and her niece, to see how they take it all.” 

“ A very short speech,” said the elder of the two ladies, 
with the air of a connoiseur — “ and a very poor one.” She 
was of the opposition. “ Now he’s off.” 

This latter remark referred to his Excellency, who that 
moment left the chamber followed by his staff, while 
and conversation among the assemblage became 

ook at that woman standing there as if she were 

Lady herself,” and the opposition member’s wife 

mentioned the name of the Lady at that time presiding at 
Rideau Hall. “ See how proud old Watkins looks 1 He is 
introducing Sir John to her, I declare; and he is paying 
her a compliment I can see very well — the sly old fox ! 
He hasn’t forgotten that Senator Watkins thought he should 
have been Speaker of the Senate and probably thinks so 


greetings 

general. 

“ Do 1 


92 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


still — an idea I first put into his head/* she said to herself, 
“ and I’ll keep it there too if his wife doesn’t, though judg- 
ing by her looks I think she will.” 

“Sir Adolphe is talking to the niece,” here put in her 
companion, “ he has always an eye for beauty — though I 
don’t mean to say there’s much in her face after all !” 

Mrs. Watkins and her neice now left the chamber 
under the Senator’s escort. In the lobby Mr. Hatfield 
joined them. 

“ Ah, my hew found aunt,” he said bowing, “ I told you 
last evening that you would be the cynosure of all eyes 
to-day and that you would make the Senator proud — and 
I have to congratulate you — and Miss Southcote too,” and 
he glanced at Gertrude, who, as she, with heightened color 
and her quiet well bred air, walked beside her aunt, cer- 
tainly justified all the compliments which had that day 
been passed upon her appearance. Her low-necked white 
dress became her well. Her figure was, if anything, fuller 
and more womanly than when last we saw her. As she 
looked down, Mr. Hatfield rattled on, “ I may congratulate 
myself, too, on being proved a true prophet, though for the 
matier of that, it didn’t require much gift of prophecy to 
predict a brilliant success for you to-day.” 

Mrs. Watkins took the compliment graciously enough, 
while Gertrude looked as though she hadn’t heard it at 
all. 

“ Come, George,” said the Senator, “ don’t be paying 
these ladies too many compliments. Sir John, you know, 
has done all that for them already — as I have also,” he ad- 
ded, fearing his wife might think his interference unwar- 
rantable. 

As they walked about the lobbies for a little, they 
looked up at the portraits of the speakers. Hatfield drop- 
ped naturally behind with Gertrude. 

“ Some of us thought my uncle — the Senator — ought 
to be up here, but it was ‘ no go.’ We hadn’t influence 
enough, and besides, between ourselves, though a good 
soul, the uncle is at times strangely lacking in tact, 
and managed that business very badly. But, to change 


THE CAHAHIAH SENATOR. 


93 


the subject, how pleasant it is to have a fair cousm — ^you’ll 
let me call you cousin, I hope ? — to show the sights to here. 
I think you said you had never been in Ottawa until 
yesterday ? Well, I think you’ll enjoy it, for a time at all 
events. I’m to have a place of honor beside you at the 
Russell, you know, which will be a great gain over last 
session, when men at the Club, men at the hotel, and men 
in the House, were my only consolation.'’ This was per- 
haps scarcely an accurate description of his past social life, 
but he was speaking lightly. 

“ There seems to be plenty of ladies,” Gertrude re- 
marked. 

“ Oh yes, of course,” he replied, “ but if one is seen with 
the same one twice, it’s in everybody’s mouth, and we 
politicians cultivate caution. But you, you see, I may 
claim as a cousin; and I hope I may be able to do something 
to recompense you for that privilege.” 

She murmured her thanks. A suspicion flitted across 
her mind that the younger man had come honestly by a lit- 
tle of the self esteem which the Senator she knew possessed. 
But his light talk was something new to her and not un- 
pleasant. And so they wandered on through the corridors 
following the lead of the Senator, into the beautiful library 
where Gertrude gazed about her in admiration — promising 
to herself that she would not be slow to avail herself of its 
privileges — then out through the reading-room, where al- 
ready a few members had begun their three months’ 
occupation of conning the papers. They went up to the 
Senators’ gallery of the House of Commons for a few 
minutes, just in time to see the House adjourn, and 
mace and Speaker disappear. Hatfield accompanied 
the party to their sleigh, where pleading an engage- 
ment at the Club he parted from them. The ladies 
and the Senator, clad in warm furs, enjoyed the bracing 
air as the creaking runners carried them over the dry 
snow, piled up on either side in great white heaps. The 
beauty of the massive triple pile of buildings with their tall 
towers, the dark bronze monument of Cartier, the terraces 
and gateways of the Parliament square, half veiled by 


94 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


clouds of swirling snow, which, blown hither and thither 
by the wind, well nigh hid the new departmental block 
and other buildings on the other side of Wellington street 
from view altogether, the sleighs and foot passengers 
hurrying hither and thither, but chiefly to or from the 
Houses of Parliament ; all these had impressed themselves 
on Gertrude’s mind as they came to the opening earlier in 
the afternoon, yet seemed to have lost nono of their novelty 
now on their return, so brief was the trip to and from 
the Russell House. 

This day was but the beginning of a new phase of life 
to her. Up to the present her life had been upon the 
whole a serene and quiet one. Her Aunt, however, had 
come to Ottawa determined to see and be seen and to 
make her presence felt. And it was part of her scheme, 
both for the girl’s sake and her own, that Gertrude should 
share the new experiences with her. Mrs. Watkins had 
been in Ottawa before, but only just long enough to re- 
cognize the advantage to a lady in her present position of 
having a young and attractive companion — an advantage 
to the young companion as well as to her hostess. She was 
still bent on weaning Gertrude’s mind from what she con- 
sidered its morbid condition, and of putting her in the way 
of meeting those from whom she hoped she might some day 
select a suitable husband, for her niece’s beauty and ac- 
complishments fully entitled her to select, she thought, and 
not to waste her life either with an unsuitable mate or in 
useless repinings at her necessary separation from him. 
These thoughts, however, for the present she kept to her- 
self. She had summoned Gertrude and enjoined her to be 
in time for the opening day, the beginning of the campaign 
as it were, and it had chanced that some friends were 
coming down the day before in whose charge she was 
accordingly placed. Mr. Hatfield, who was usually punctual 
in his attendance at Parliament had accompanied his uncle 
and wife on their journey to Ottawa, and now all were 
comfortably installed at the Russell. It would be hardly 
fair to say that as yet Mrs. Watkins had any positive design 
marked out with regard to her husband’s nephew and her 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


95 


niece, but it must be owned that she thought these young 
people might with mutual advantage be thrown together 
and that, in short, a match between them would be a very 
desirable thing. Hatfield was well off, was considered a 
rising young public man, had no entanglements so far as 
she knew, and lived not far from her new home. She had 
not seen very much of him, but what little she had seen she 
liked. She was sensible enough to leave these matters to a 
certain extent to chance, and to the people most directly 
concerned, but she usually liked to help along the chances 
as opportunity offered. She knew that her niece, though 
gentle and to a certain extent pliable, had still a mind 
of her own. The heart she did not take so much account 
of. She would, however, wait and see how matters were 
going, as Gertrude became more accustomed to her new 
surroundings, and give her such motherly counsel when 
the proper time came as, in the absence of her mother, duty 
required of an aunt. 

Under the influence of her aunt’s will, Gertrude made 
no attempt to avoid the pleasures and gaieties to which 
she had been a stranger. It would have been foolish to 
have come here had she any intention of doing so. So the 
opening day was followed by a round of social events, in 
which Gertrude took part, if not with hearty zest, at any 
rate with some enjoyment. Her thoughts still strayed to 
the far off West, and she still thought of Arthur constantly, 
but by degrees an interest in the events about her de- 
veloped, until she often wondered as she found herself 
dancing, laughing, chatting, in the midst of some happy 
throng, or skating or tobogganing with the youth of the 
Capital, and entering into the sport with zest — whether she 
could be the same Gertrude who in Muskoka a few short 
months ago had cried herself to sleep by night and sat 
brooding by day over the misfortune of her life. Her 
heart was true as ever to Arthur, though, and the thought 
of forming any other attachment would, as yet at all 
events, have been abhorrent to her, and she remembered 
without regret that she had promised him it would always 
be so. Her present enjoyment, she felt, was due to the 


96 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


novelty of her pastimes, which she almost feared would 
soon wear oft. 

Her beauty and gentle demeanor were not long in at- 
tracting attention. Even at the opening of Parliament it 
has been seen she was remarked. At the State drawing- 
room which followed, the impression she created was still 
more noticeable, and henceforward, whether at a State 
dinner or ball at Kideau Hall or elsewhere, whether at 
the rink or on the toboggan slide, Miss Southcote had no 
dearth of admirers. With old Senators and members, as 
well as with the younger Commoners, the vice regal house- 
hold and the “ gilded youth ” of the Capital, she was alike 
a favorite, the ladies, too, with few exceptions, joining in 
the general expressions of approval. She was always “ the 
same ” they said, gentle and well bred, unaftected and 
ready to please and apparently to be pleased. Her musical 
accomplishments, too, brought her into request, and she 
was soon recognized as one of the best musicians known to 
society at the Capital. 

It must not be imagined that Hatfield was the man to 
allow the special privilege he enjoyed of being in the 
society of one so universally admired to be neglected. As 
has been seen he claimed cousinship with her from the 
start, and soon grew even more anxious to please her than 
even the cousinly relationship rendered incumbent upon 
him. He seldom missed breakfast or luncheon at the 
hotel for the Club, as was often his wont in former days. 
In fact, he had for a session or two before, lived in cham- 
bers, taking all his meals, when not invited out, at the 
Club. Now, he took his place by Gertrude’s side, with a 
regularity more than cousinly, generally managing, too, 
in some way to secure the same place when he dined or 
lunched out at the same house. 

One morning as they sat at breakfast and the Senator 
laid down the matutinal newspaper with which he regular- 
ly regaled himself — a habit with which his wife had never 
interfered — Gertrude took it up casually, and glancing over 
the debates of the previous day, said suddenly, 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


97 


“ Mr. Hatfield, I should so like to hear you make a 
speech !” 

The young member looked up with a pleased expres- 
sion. Then as he broke his egg he answered — 

“ Your kind interest is very gratifying and encourag- 
ing to a young politician, and as it is no doubt purely 
cousinly and not intended to disconcert me, you may have 
your wish if you care to come up to the House to-day. I’m 
to have a minor part in the debate now on, and at the risk 
of being disconcerted I shall try and let you know when I 
shall begin.” 

“ I’m sure the thought of disconcerting you was far 
from me — I would not for the world.” 

Enough said,” interrupted Hatfield. “ Then it’s agreed 
— perhaps — who knows,” he added, “ but the inspiration of 
your presence may enable me to say something absolutely 
new even on so hackneyed a subject as the National 
Policy ! Will you risk it too, Mrs. Watkins ?” 

“ Most certainly,” that lady answered. So the matter 
was considered settled. 

That afternoon found the two ladies sitting in the 
Senators’ gallery of the House of Commons, gazing down 
upon the scene beneath. The House looked sleepy enough 
in the quiet afternoon light. The Speaker seemed to be 
watching the proceedings with a languid interest, while 
two pages seated on the steps at his feet with heads to- 
gether were apparently comparing jack knives. The Clerk 
of the House seemed to be enjoying a nap while his assistant 
was busy writing. A member in one of the back rows cf 
the Opposition with a number of ponderous volumes piled 
against the side of his desk, and sheets of paper with 
newspaper or other clippings pasted upon them and 
copious notes on other sheets before him, was prosing 
away, while members sat here and there, some writing 
letters, others yawning or conversing with their neighbors. 
A few were listening with a yawning interest. The pencils 
of about half the reporters in the gallery were leaping 
along with more show of life than appeared elsewhere in 
the chamber, while the other half seemed to be idling. 


98 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Hatiield sat in a seat in the third row on the right of the 
Speaker, taking notes. He found time to glance up at the 
ladies with a resigned look, as though to say, See what an 
ignoble task is before me.” 

When the member addressing the House at last sat 
down and the rattle of applause from his side died away, 
Hatfield arose amid a counter rattle from those about 
him and began to speak. More attention, they ob- 
served, was paid on both sides than the previous 
speaker commanded. The Premier once turned him- 
self in his chair so as to look up at Hatfield and nodded 
encouragingly and smacked his lips in silent appro- 
bation. “ Hear hears ” were frequent. His voice 
was clear, and he spoke with apparent confidence, 
though once or twice during his speech he seemed to 
hesitate and become a trifle confused, and Gertrude could 
not help thinking that a consciousness of their presence 
there was the cause. He spoke somewhat too rapidly, she 
thought, and though all this talk of duties and tariffs was 
as Greek to her, she saw that he was hitting his opponent, 
who sat doggedly watching him rather hard, as that 
gentleman occasionally stung by a laugh from the other 
members ejaculated something inaudible to her. Hatfield 
spoke for nearly an hour and her interest did not flag — nor 
did Mrs. Watkins, who nodded approvingly from time to 
time as he went on. His diction was excellent, and his 
manner for the most part, with the exceptions mentioned, 
easy. Once a little cross-firing with a gentleman in tlie front 
row opposite arose, the purport of which, however, Gertrude 
could not understand. Hatfield seemed to have been roast- 
ing the previous speaker, for whom Gertrude could not 
help feeling some commiseration, and his arguments un- 
mercifully, when the member in the front row came to his 
rescue and quickly interjected some remark and the little 
altercation referred to ensued. As Hatfield sat down 
Gertrude thought the speech upon the whole a satisfactory 
performance, while her aunt, beaming with apparent de- 
light, murmured, “ capital, capital — and so clever too, my 
dear !” in her ear. Mrs. Watkins’ face, however, began to 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


99 


harden as the gentleman in the front row of the opposition 
arose and began in clear and incisive sentences to critisize 
Hatfield’s argument. In a few rapid sentences he seemed 
to sum it all up. Then he turned it over and presented it 
in another aspect, while some of those around him indulged 
in derisive laughter. Next he seized hold of separate 
portions and seemed to hold them up to ridicule and 
execration. He even questioned his opponents facts — said 
his figures on the subject of coal were distorted, illusory, 
and even imaginative — declared that Hatfield’s youth was 
his only excuse for the enormity he had committed. Hat- 
field grew flushed as he sat listening, though making little 
attempts at taking notes or writing, and occasionally 
indulged in a little forced laugh which grated somewhat 
harshly on Gertrude’s ears. She wished the man who was 
speaking would not be so merciless or would cease altogether, 
and was relieved when her aunt, with scornful expression, said 
she would not listen to “ such insolent rubbish,” and with 
lips compressed arose and led the way out. In the corridor 
Hatfield, who had seen their exit and hastened out to meet 
them, looking rather excited said hurriedly : “ I’m afraid 
you’ve had a horribly dull afternoon — that is until I began 

to be roasted alive by He mentioned the name of one 

of the opposition leaders with a little laugh, adding : “ It 
won’t do for me to leave now. I must hasten back and 
hear all he has to say as I shall have an opportunity some 
other time to pay him off. He’s nothing if not bitter 
— though I have a horrible suspicion that he was right 
on one point, and that I made one slip in my figures, which 
was I trustexcusable — underthe circumstances.” He bowed 
as he apparently alluded to his remark to Gertrude in the 
morning as to being disconcerted, — and she was now sorry 
she had come, for ipon the whole she liked him. 


100 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


CHAPTER XII. 

AN ACCIDENT. 

'‘What’s going on in the House these days?’ asked a 
gentleman in the smoking-room of the Rideau Club. 

The question appeared to he directed toward no one in 
particular, a number of members of Parliament and others 
being present. A certain ex-minister who had been perusing 
a newspaper laid it across his knee saying : — 

“ I see Hatfield has been unloading a rather startling 
quantity of coal on the House. He dumped at least a cool 
half million tons more than the year’s output can be made 
to total up. That young man needs snubbing, and I wish 
I’d been there to do it ! He got a pretty good over- 
hauling though, I’m happy to see. He must be trying 
to qualify for the portfolio of Exaggerator-General to the 
administration.” 

“ Hatfield’s usually pretty careful about his facts,” put 
in one of the members. 

“ I fancy his head’s been a little turned by his pretty 
cousin, Miss Southcote. They say he’s quite gone in that 
quarter. She sat in the Senator’s gallery, to inspire him 
I suppose, when he made his speech. I was there in the 
Speaker’s gallery and saw it all. She didn’t enjoy the 
dressing down he got much more than he, I fancy.” All 
eyes were turned toward the young man who said this, 
who sat quietly smoking a cigar in one corner of the room. 
One of the members entered a mild protest, of “ Come, come, 
Duffy, don’t drag a lady’s name up here.” 

“Rather a dangerous form .of inspiration for him I 
should say,” remarked the ex-minister. 

“ She’s not his cousin, though,” said another, — “ she’s a 
niece of his uncle’s wife, that’s all.” 

“ Which makes it all the more dangerous for him !” 

“ What bobbery is this the uncle is up to in the Senate ?” 
asked a gentleman who had been meantime quietly perusing 
his newspaper, “listen to this — ‘ Hon. Mr. Watkins — Wednes- 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


101 


day next — For a select committee to enquire into and report 
upon the condition of the band of Indians known as theKick- 
aways, and more particularly, (1) as to their moral andspirit- 
ual condition, (2) their physical and mental condition, (3) 
the kind, quality, quantity and cost of food supplied to 
them, (4) the kind, quality, quantity and cost of all other 
articles supplied to them, (5) the amount of money paid out 
to or for them in respect of annuities, presents or otherwise, 
(6) the general condition of their reserve and the progress 
made in agricultural, religious, and general education among 
them — with power to send for persons, papers and docu- 
ments, and to report evidence from time to time and with 
all convenient speed.’ ” 

“ That’s one of the results of old Watkins’ trip to the 
north-west last summer. I saw by the papers he jumped 
out of the upper window of a burning farmhouse. Now 
he’s going to set the world on fire I suppose !” said one. 

“ There is plenty of room for inquiry and for a thorough 
overhauling of that Indian Department,” remarked the ex- 
minister; “but old Watkins may be trusted to get hold of 
the wrong end of things and to make a precious old ass of 
himself into the bargain !” 

“ His wife will comb his hair for him if he does !” 
predicted the man who had read the Senator’s notice of 
motion. “ But you haven’t heard it all yet. He has got a 
question on the paper for the same day. ‘ Have the Govern- 
ment been informed of the presence of a young white girl 
among the Kickaway band of Indians, and if so what 
action is proposed to be taken to have her restored to her 
relations or friends ?’ ” 

There was a general exclamation of surprise. 

“ The Senator must have been among these Kickaways 
and got hold of some information,” said the ex-minister. 
“ I’ve always understood that their chief ‘ Big Kicker ’ was 
a wily old chap, but I hardly thought he’d carry off a 
white girl especially under the eyes of the Government 
agents and missionaries. I think I must go and hear what 
the Senator has to say. Discussion upon questions is 
allowed in the Senate — so the white girl must prepare to 


102 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


be discussed, whether she exists or not outside of old 
Watkins’ imagination — for the old gentlemen can hardly 
be expected to let such an interesting subject pass without 
discussion. I predict a big House for Watkins on Wednes- 
day.” 

“ I’d keep you company,” said the young man in the 
corner, “ if I thought the niece would be there — I’d like to 
see whether she and her aunt would be as much worked 
up when the Senator is sat upon as in Hatfield’s case.” 

“ Come along then by all means, though I fancy if Hat- 
field is there you needn’t look for even a glance. A young 
and good looking member, and a safe seat is not to be 
picked up every day, and I fancy the young lady won’t 
turn her back on him, even though his conceit has met 
what it deserves for once.” 

These notices had been shown by the Senator, with 
some pride, that morning to his wife, and in addition he 
had handed her a letter to read from the Rev. McWhirter, 
whom he explained that he had met in the Northwest, 
inquiring whether his presence would be required during 
the session at Ottawa, and intimating that he purposed 
going back to some remote region in the far west in about 
ten days after the letter was written, unless he meantime 
received an intimation that his presence was desired at 
Ottawa together with a remittanc-e of $300 which would 
be necessary to enable him to make the trip. The letter 
was dated from Winnipeg.” 

•‘You didn’t send the money I suppose,” said Mrs. 
Watkins. 

“ Well, you see, my dear, I got the letter before I gave 
my notices. He would be off, goodness knows where, before 
I could get an order of the House, if I didn’t reply at once. 
So I sent him $100 and told him the rest would be forth- 
coming when he arrived,” explained the Senator. 

“ Then you trust this man ?” queried his wife. 

“ Oh yes, he’s a parson, so I’ve no doubt he’s to be 
trusted. I’ll get an order of the House in due time for his 
attendance and have no doubt I’ll get my money back.” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


103 


“ You know best, of course, but I think I’d rather have 
had the order first.” 

“That was impossible under the circumstances, my 
dear. My motion can’t be on before Wednesday — and then 
probably the Government will ask that it stand — and no 
time was to be lost in securing his attendance. He pos- 
sesses a fund of information which will rather astonish the 
Government and the country, I fancy.” 

“ I think I’d secure that fund of information then, if 
I were you, before advancing him further funds of my 
own.” 

“ I have secured it in great part for myself,” said the 
Senator tapping a note book which he had in his hand, 
“ but it has to be submitted in due form by the sworn 
testimony of the man himself.” 

The -Senator seemed well satisfied and the subject 
dropped. 

That afternoon being Saturday, Mrs. Watkins and 
Gertrude, accompanied by Mr. Hatfield, drove down to a 
tobogganing party at Rideau Hall. The day was fine and 
the air clear and exhilarating — just one of those fine winter 
days which are really enjoyable, the snow crisp and dry, 
though the sun shone brightly ; little or no wind, though 
the frosty air brought color to the cheeks and brightness 
to the eyes. 

“ Oh, don’t let us go down that same old dreary road 
again,” exclaimed Gertrude, who, in a blanket coat and 
tuque, looked more lively and charming than usual, Hat- 
field thought, “ is there no other more interesting way we 
may take ?” 

“ Yes,” replied Hatfield, “ we may go round by way of 
the Chaudiere and Hull, and cross on the ice to Rideau, 
but it will consume some time.” 

“ Then by all means, let us go that way ! What do you 
say. aunt ?” 

Mrs. Watkins offering no objection they turned up 
Wellington Street, passed by the cab stand, where Jean 
and Alphonse and Pat stood beside their respective sleighs 
and carioles, thwacking themselves to keep up the circula- 


104 , 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


tion,andcrackingjokes, French or Hibernian, according to the 
nationality of the particular Jehu — past Parliament square 
and its noble buildings, down to and over the Suspension 
Bridge, stopping to gaze upon the boiling Chaudiere, which 
Jack Frost could scarce restrain from bursting his bonds, 
then through the crowded French wooden town, doomed so 
often to be devastated by fire, down the river and across 
its surface on the ice road, thence up to Rideau Hall, that 
unimposmg collection of incongruous buildings, the scene 
of so many vice-regal festivities, the social centre of the 
capital. The rink and toboggan slides were alive with 
pleasure-seekers. The bright colored winter costumes, the 
sparkling eyes and ruddy cheeks of the young ladies, 
whose merry laughter rang through the frosty air like 
sleigh bells, the stalwart manly figures of the gentlemen, 
whose costumes were in most cases no less bright than 
those of their fair companions, the swift rush of the tobog- 
gan, the click of the' skates, the music of the band, formed 
a combination of sights and sounds quite exhilarating 
enough to raise the spirits of much older people than Gert- 
rude and Mr. Hatfield, who, having been greeted by vice 
royalty, and having left Mrs. Watkins to bask in its sun- 
shine, secured a toboggan and were soon speeding through 
the frosty air. They had enjoyed two meteor-like trips 
through space. Again they shot off from the summit 
down the steep descent, when a sudden swerve, a cry, a 
crash, a blinding avalanche of snow, and there they lay in 
a snow bank helpless for a few moments, until friendly 
hands raised first Gertrude and then her companion, who 
uttered a cry of pain as some one seized his arm. 

“ It feels as though it were broken,” he said, “ take hold 
of the other,” and they did so. A few yards further on 
another party lay stranded in similar fashion — a young 
man and two ladies — none the worse, however, as they 
were on their feet in an instant or two after. The first 
vision of upturned mocassins and petticoats had startled 
the bystanders. 

“ A.h, Duffy, I owe you one for that,” exclaimed Hat- 
field, “ what made you follow us so closely ?” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


105 


" Very sorry, I’m sure,” said Duffy. “ I thought I gave 
you lots of time. Something must have gone wrong with 
your toboggan. I hope Miss Southcote is none the worse. 
I shall never forgive myself 1” 

“ Oh, I’m all right,” answered Gertrude, “ but Mr. Hat- 
field I fear, is not. We must go to aunt, and at once,” she 
added, as she saw Hatfield’s paleness and look of pain. 

Fortunately there was a doctor present, — a fellow- 
member of the House of Commons — who was speedily 
called on and pronounced the injury to Hatfield’s left arm 
not a very serious, though it proved a painful one. No bones 
were broken, but it had suffered a severe wrench, which 
necessitated his being taken home at once and being laid 
up for a few days. As they drove back to town slowly, 
that Hatfield’s arm might not suffer from any sudden jolt, 
the look of tender solicitude in Gertrude’s eyes almost 
repaid him he thought for all he suffered. Mrs. Watkins, 
too, was kindness personified. 

“You should have remained behind. Miss Southcote,” 
said he at length, looking, however, as if he were content 
that she had not. 

“ Oh, not for worlds ! They asked me, but how could I ? 
Apart from my duty to stand by you after getting you 
into this trouble, I could not have enjoyed myself a single 
moment.” 

Hatfield kept to the hotel for some days after this. 
Though not seriously injured, his arm was badly swollen 
and pained him when touched, and heavy clothing was un- 
bearable. 

Next morning Gertrude and her aunt, accompanied by 
the Senator, attended the church, standing literally upon a 
rock, which they had passed under when driving to the 
Chaudiere the day before. Gertrude never missed Sunday 
morning, and rarely Sunday evening, service. Her aunt 
went because it was the eminently proper thing to do, and 
the Senator went because his wife went. Sunday in this 
great hotel seemed not like Sunday at all to Gertrude. The 
glimpses which she caught, as she waited for the elevator, 
of the great paved hall alive with groups of men sitting or 


106 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


standing about engaged, some in earnest talk, others in 
jokes and laughter; the large dining-room, with its skurry- 
ing white-jacketed garcons, its many guests at many tables, 
white-haired Senators, middle-aged and young members of 
Parliament, the llidy relatives and friends of such as were 
fortunate enough to have them with them, the newspaper 
men, travellers and transient guests of all kinds, the clatter 
of dishes and the hum of conversation — always seemed out 
of place to Gertrude who had spent but few Sundays out- 
side her own home until now. She could not help con- 
trasting it all with the peaceful day of rest at home or the 
quiet Sabbaths in Muskoka, when the tinkling of the little 
church bell would come floating over the lake as they 
rowed to the Ellesmere church. Then her thoughts would 
wander off* to Arthur and, as she wondered where he might 
be to-day and what he might be doing, she felt the tears 
coming to her eyes and the old self-reproaches to her 
heart. Perhaps he was not now living. The thought had 
come to her more than once and caused her unutterable 
anguish of mind, insomuch that she had been obliged to 
withdraw to the privacy of her own room and indulge in a 
good fit of weeping before she could compose herself. 

Such had been her experience in the early part of this 
Sunday afternoon. She had however washed away the 
traces of tears and Anally determining to maintain her 
usual composure for the rest of the day, she returned to 
the room where her aunt and the Senator sat. The former 
had the High Church paper, to which she always subscribed, 
across her lap. She had ceased reading and was toying with 
her eyeglasses. The Senator was enjoying ease, in the 
shape of a familiar sackcoat, a pair of gorgeous slippers 
and an arm chair. His thoughts were connected with the 
far off* Kickaways and the misery of their condition. Yet 
the contemplation of such wretchedness did not seem to 
have a depressing influence upon the mind of their would- 
be benefactor. On the contrary he seemed to be in high 
good humor, as he thought of the blow which it devolved 
upon him to strike at blundering officialdom, on their be- 
half. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


107 


“ I shall not spare them, you may rest assured, madam, 
once McWhirter is here to make ^ood his statements as to 
the wretched condition of those miserable creatures. The 
Government have too long turned a deaf ear to the re- 
monstrances of their friends. I don’t say I should care to 
bring about their downfall, but they must be more careful, 
madam,” and he looked at Mrs. Watkins, who had finished 
her paper and seemed ready to listen. She was, in fact, 
just then thinking that she could have presided with at 
least as much grace at the table of her husband, were he 
in the position occupied by a certain high ofiicial with 
whom they had dined a few evenings ago, as the wife of 
that gentleman had on that occasion. If they will pre- 
fer incapacity,” continued the Senator, “ and downright 
dishonesty to — -to — ” The alternative which the Govern- 
ment had up to this time neglected for incompetency and 
dishonesty were not just then made knoWn, for a knock 
at the door interrupted him, which Mrs Watkins answered 
by a laconic “ come.” 

Hatfield entered. He wore a loose fiannel coat or 
‘ blazer,’ with broad red and black stripes, the lounging 
garb usually reserved for his own room. His arm was in 
a sling. The colors became him, and his disabled arm lent 
interest to his appearance. 

“ Well, George !” exclaimed the Senator, “you look re- 
markably well, not to say cool, considering what a hard 
week of it you have just had — first knocked out in the 
House and trampled on, because you were put up to 
answer a ninny of a fellow instead of given your proper 
place in the debate — then tumbled into a snow bank by a 
young duffer of a civil servant — isn’t Duffy a civil ser- 
vant ? — and then last night when I left you in your room, 
it looked as if you were going to finish yourself and the 
week together from the way your chums were gathering 
together, and the quantity of hot water which was being 
ordered up !” 

While this speech was being hurled at him, George 
quietly took a seat, after bowing politely to the ladies. 

“ I’m afraid church has not made you charitable. Sen- 


108 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


ator,” he said, “there is something lurking under that 
* hot water.^ ” 

“There George, there was something lurking under 
it, but it didn’t lurk there long after the hot water got 
atop of it, and the sugar and the spoon got into it — a 
thirstier looking crowd of young Commoners I haven’t seen 
for some time — ha ! ha !” and the Senator laughed loudly 
at his little sally. 

“ Now, that’s what I call telling tales out of school — 
‘ tales ’ is hardly the word, either, with which to charac- 
terize such ' base calumnies,’ as my opponent of the other 
day’s debate would say. The doctor came in and ordered 
up some hot water to bathe my arm, and just because some 
other fellows dropped in about the same time and ap- 
propriated some of the hot water and my decanter — would 
you believe it, my dear aunt and cousin,” and Hatfield 
looked appealingly first at Mr. Watkins and then more 
timidly at Gertrude, “ on such a foundation is built this 
base and baseless calumny! Who would be guilty of 
hurling such an accusation at my head the moment it is 
put inside the door where hospitality is looked for ? My 
prophetic soul might have told me, as Hamlet’s did him, 
that no one but mine uncle could have had the heart to do 
it !” 

“ Oh — hot water for a swollen arm — who ever heard of 
such a thing ? Do you mean to say that the doctor pre- 
scribed hot, when cold water was available ?” demanded the 
Senator. 

“ There now — you see, ladies — what use is there in fur- 
ther argument with one who lives in the mediaeval atmos- 
phere of the senate — would he believe in any medical 
treatment more modern than bleeding, for any ailment ? 
But,” said the younger man, suddenly turning the tables 
on his senior, “ you spoke of my overhauling in the House 
the other day. They say it’s nothing to the roasting in 
store for you when your motions come up on Wednesday, 
my dear uncle !” 

“ Roasting indeed I” answered the Senator. “ I’ll do the 
roasting on that occasion, my boy, — if you don’t believe it, 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


109 


I invite you all to come and see — roasting indeed ! I sup- 
pose that’s what some of your young Commoners have 
been saying, after they had bathed themselves — inside — 
with your hot water and the contents of the decanter. I 
declare it makes me sometimes think of resigning and going 
in for the Commons — to hear some of these young fledgling 
legislators talk ! If I were only twenty years younger !” — 
and the Senator wagged his head in token of the agitation 
which would prevail, in such event, in the political atmos- 
phere. 

Such little friendly passages at arms were not infre- 
quent between the uncle and nephew, and never led to 
serious results. So the ladies preserved their equanimity. 
Mrs. Watkins had some slight misgivings as to the wisdom 
of the Senator’s proposed course of action, but she was wil- 
ling that he should have a tilt at the Government if he did 
not bring disaster upon himself, as she thought she had 
been treated somewhat superciliously by some of the official 
ladies. Gertrude had been so distracted by her own thoughts 
that she was not readily roused to a lively interest in the 
subjects of the present debate, though she could not help 
being a little amused. She looked very pretty, Hatfield 
thought, as she sat by the window, her head resting on her 
hand, an open book before her. Her brown hair looked 
soft and warm as it stood in relief against the snow on a 
house top seen out of the window. Her eyes were pecu- 
liarly soft and gentle to-day. 

They did not go to the table d*hote again that day, out 
of consideration for their disabled guest, but Mrs. Watkins 
poured tea from a dainty teapot and tempered its strength 
with hot water from a little brass urn. Gertrude presided 
over the bread and butter and cake with infinite grace. 
Hatfield thought they made a comfortable and on the whole 
a cheerful little party. Later in the evening Hatfield asked 
Miss Southcote to sing and she went to the piano and sang 
one of the solos which she had been accustomed to sing for 
her father on a Sunday afternoon or evening at home. 
She began somewhat tremulously now “ I will arise — I will 
arise, and go unto my Father, and will say unto Him — 


110 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Father, Father I have sinned.” Her voice ^rew so plaintive 
that Hatfield feared she would break down, but she gathered 
resolution and steadiness as she proceeded and finished 
resolutely, while he sat and listened with bated breath. 
Her voice was clear, and he thought, excelled in sweetness 
any he had ever heard. It was abundantly strong too 
after the first few notes, for the room was not large. The 
Senator, still remembering what Gerturde had said to him 
on the steamer, as to the crippled condition of unmusical 
people, called out : “excellent, excellent ! sing another for 
my nephew. He doesn’t often enjoy such a treat. I’ll be 
bound my dear,” and presently slipped out to have a chat 
with a friend in the great hall below stairs. Mrs. Watkins, 
too had occasion to go into the next room, and did not return 
for some time. Gertrude was beginning to notice that this 
sort of thing happened more and more frequently, and 
became a little alarmed at being so often left alone with 
Mr. Hatfield — not that she disliked him or feared him, but 
she began to be fearful lest his constant society, the gaze 
which she sometimes found directed at her when he sup- 
posed her not observing him, with other little signs, might 
mean something more than mere cousinly regard. And 
she thought her aunt at all events was equally as obser- 
vant as herself and that perhaps her little absences, when 
Hatfield was present were not wholly unpremeditated. On 
this occasion she came back, after having left the young 
people together for nearly an hour, an interval during 
which, Hatfield, who pleaded his invalided condition as 
a special of ground of indulgence, succeeded in getting 
Gertrude to almost exhaust her repertoire of oratorio 
music, while he sat dreamily gazing at her, thoroughly 
enjoying with both eye and ear the privilege of being with 
her. He began to think it would be a blessed privilege to 
have her within sight and hearing always. This was not 
the first time the thought had come to him, but now it 
clung to him as he sat and looked at her and listened to 
her voice, and he felt that it was a pleasant thought, and 
that it was fast obtaining possession of him so completely 
that it would refuse to be shaken off. Meantime Gertrude 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Ill 


seemed anxious to gratify his taste for music, rather than 
for conversation. Perhaps she had some dim idea of what 
was passing in his mind, and feared that a stoppage of the 
music might bring with it some sort of crisis. At length 
her aunt returned to the room, and Hatfield shortly after 
rose to go. 

“ You must by no means disobey the injunction of the 
doctor to keep to the house for this week — or at any rate 
until the wmather moderates. Make our apartments your 
headquarters if you like,” said Mrs. Watkins in her most 
winning manner. 

“ There is little to tempt me out even if I could get my 
great coat on — especially when such delightful hours may 
be passed indoors as I have enjoyed this evening. Thank 
you, my dear Aunt, I shall not forget to avail myself of 
your kindness.” And as he walked along the corridor he 
made up his mind that he would wear his arm in a sling 
for two weeks if the doctor said so — and he rather hoped 
he would. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

A DRAWING-ROOM SCENE. 

Hatfield exhibited no great restlessness at his enforced 
confinement to the hotel during the next few days. The 
swelling of the arm was going down, but he still carried it 
in a sling. The pain was fast disappearing and he rather 
liked the role of invalid. When he did not take his meals 
in his own room, he could always depend on getting one in 
Mrs. Watkins*. She made a point of ordering one whenever 
a meal hour approached and he was in her apartments. 
The Senator usually stuck to the public dining-room, and 
received his wife’s excuses for not accompanying him with 
equanimity. Hatfield was shrewd enough to guess that the 
aunt had some designs upon him, while he enjoyed her 
kindnesa and solicitude for his wounded arm. He was 
quite sure however that Gertrude was no party to any 


112 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


design on the part of her aunt. -She was always kind and 
gentle, but there was a certain reserve which he had not 
been able to penetrate. While she did not shrink from 
general conversation, and was sometimes bright and cheer- 
ful, she seemed to avoid a tete a tete whenever it could be 
avoided without being likely to cause remark. She played 
and sang for him, she enquired gravely two or three times 
a day as to the state of his arm, she gave him the news 
when she came in from a luncheon party one day and from 
a skating party on another. She had even refused to 
skate with Mr. Duffy, she said, for no other apparent 
reason than the trouble he had brought on her uncle s 
nephew. She was altogether so kind and considerate that 
he felt himself, as he believed, falling helplessly in love 
with this girl — and yet he could not say to himself that he 
had received any assurance or even a sign of the sentiment 
being reciprocated by her. He was fully aware of his 
advantages as a good looking young Member of Parliament, 
rapidly rising in public life, with ample means. Yet these 
things he ' felt were not considered by her — even to the 
extent they should have been. There was a something 
about her manner which in some indefinable way seemed 
to warn him off, and yet, as is often the result, which 
seemed the more to lure him on to a hopeless infatuation. 
On one occasion when the aunt was about to make one of 
her now frequent exits on some pretext and leave him 
alone with her niece, he thought he noticed an appealing 
look, a something not quite a sign from the latter to her 
aunt, as though she would detain he^:. This rather galled 
him. Mrs. Watkins with manifest reluctance remained in 
the room, and Hatfield grew rather morose and finally 
withdrew. But Gertrude’s unchanged gentle manner when 
they next met charmed him as before. 

On the Wednesday following the accident at the tobog- 
gin slide, Hatfield was so far recovered that he himself 
proposed to have lunch in the public dining-room. In fact 
there was little excuse for his further confinement within 
doors, though he still wore his arm in a sling — as much, it 
must be confessed, for the sympathy it evoked from his, 


THE CANADtAiJ SENATOH. 


ns 


friends as for any relief it gave to his almost completely 
restored arm. However, he said he could not stand too 
sudden a return to public life, even in the hotel. 

“ I must reappear by degrees, by easy stages,” he said 
to Gertrude, as her aunt asked them to precede her to the 
dining-room, where she would join them in a few minutes, 
when the Senator should have come in. “ Let us walk 
down stairs and take a turn through the drawing-room. 
We shall meet some one there, which will serve to break 
the ice,” he added. So they sauntered down and into the 
drawing-room without, however, encountering a soul, save 
a waiter and a chamber-maid in one of the corridors. The 
drawing-room was empty. He threw himself upon a sofa, 
and she, thinking her aunt who had heard his remark as 
they set out, would find them there, sat down in an arm- 
chair near by. 

A young man a few moments later came out of the 
room in which he had lately been quartered, turned the 
key in the door and walked quietly along the corridor 
leading past the drawing-room. As he neared the draw- 
ing-room entrance he swerved towards it, and, impelled by 
idle curiosity, glanced in and stopped suddenly, as though 
a ball had struck him. He saw a beautiful girl, her side 
face half turned from him, as she looked at the young 
gentleman, who, clad in a black velvet lounging coat, was 
half reclining upon a sofa. This gentleman’s left hand 
seemed pressed to his heart — the presence of a bandage 
escaped the spectator’s observation — while the other hand 
was outstretched toward the lady as if in entreaty. But 
what absorbed the young onlooker’s attention, and seemed 
to make his blood boil, was the expression of the man’s 
face, and especially his eyes, in which the light of love 
shone with such an absorbed look, as, while it seemed a 
revelation to the stranger, seemed also to exclude his 
presence from the lover’s gaze, which was obviously en- 
grossed by his fair companion to the exclusion of every- 
thing else. 

“ Ah, Gertrude !” The young man standing there 
heard these words only. Then raising his hand to his curly 


114 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


hair as if dazed, he turned on his heel and slowly and 
sorrowfully walked away. He walked down the corridor, 
the stairway, into the lunch room, and sat down at a table 
by himself, as though in a dream. He gazed vacantly at 
the bill of fare, and, as the waiter bent over him to take 
his order, suddenly got up again and went out. The 
waiter gazed after him in mute surprise, looked at one of 
his confreres standing behind the next table, smiled, threw 
up his hand, and shrugged his shoulders after the manner 
of his race, then dusted with his napkin the place where, 
however, the stranger had left no crumbs, and having paid 
this little tribute to habit, passed on to take the order of a 
new-comer. 

The young man who had looked in unobserved at the 
drawing-room door, had not misinterpreted either the look 
or words of Hatfield. 

“ Ah, Gertrude,” he sighed, gazing intently up at the 
f?ice of her who sat looking out of the window behind him. 
Seen from the place where the young stranger had stood, 
she might have been returning his look, so wrapped in 
thought was she, as she gazed through the window with 
a wistful, absent air. “ I may, I hope, presume to call you 
by that name ; our cousinship you know, if nothing else, 
should give me that right,” he continued. She slowly 
withdrew her gaze from the window. Then her conscious- 
ness of the present returned to her, as she looked and saw 
his ardent glance and she colored slightly. As the torch 
applied to tinder, the spark falling in the powder maga- 
zine — that one look seemed to fire his soul. He sat up 
suddenly. " Gertrude,” he said passionately, “ I think of you 
always by that name, and I would call you by it, not by 
right of a fictitious cousinship, but — because I love you. 
Will you give me — not the right to call you cousin 
Gertrude — but the right I covet, to call you Gertrude 
Hatfield ? ” He rose to his feet as he spoke holding out 
his right hand entreatingly. There was no mistaking his 
meaning now, or that he was in earnest, thought Gertrude 
in dismay. 

J:>ho also rose. " Mr. Hatfield,” she said gently, “that you 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


115 


mean what you say I cannot doubt, and, believe me, I feel 
deeply the honor you do me. But — it is impossible.” 

Why impossible ? ” he cried. It was his turn to be 
dismayed. 

“ Because — because,” she faltered — and then sinking 
back to the seat from which she had just risen she burst 
into tears. “Mr. Hatfield,” she sobbed, “please do not 
speak of this to me again. Believe me, it is out of the 
question.” 

“ Is there — some other ? ” he asked quietly, when she, 
quickly stifling her sudden emotions became more 
composed. 

“ There is,” she answered simply, as she looked up with 
tearful but resolute eyes, “ thougli I may never marry, my 
heart is given to another — unchangeably.” 

Hatfield began pacing up and down, then stopped 
before her. 

“ Gertrude,” he said, “forgive me for my sudden declar- 
ation — but somehow it has been coming on for some time, 
ever since I have known you I think. I hope I have not 
deceived myself with the thought that you could learn to 
love me — and become .my wife,” he paused, as if for a 
reply, then went on quickly : “ I will not press you further 
now. This is no place for such a scene, I know. Please 
think of what I have said, and do not doom me without 
full consideration.” 

“ I am very, very sorry, Mr. Hatfield ” she answered, 
rising again as she spoke, “ but consideration will not mend 
matters. Please do not think me unkind, or that I do not 
appreciate your regard. But I must go ; I have a head- 
ache which will prevent my going downstairs,” and she 
moved toward the door. 

“ I cannot accept so sudden a decision — unless the 
nature of your — your tie precludes my speaking further.” 

Gertrude merely shook her head as she sorrowfully 
moved away, while he walked beside her, crestfallen. Kot 
another word was spoken until they reached her aunt’s 
apartments, Fortunately they encountered no pne ou the 


116 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


way. At the door she turned, and tried to smile, saying 
simply : “ thank you.” 

“ Remember,” he said, ‘‘ I do not accept this as final. 
I must have another chance,” and so saying he turned, as 
she entered the room, and made his way towards his own 
part of the house, where he shut himself in his room for 
the rest of the day, postponing his public re -appearance as j 
well as his luncheon for the present. 

Gertrude found no one in her aunt’s apartments. Mrs. : 
Watkins had evidently gone with the Senator to lunch. I 
She sat down in her own room and gave herself up to 
thought. She would not, she thought, say anything about I 
this affair to her aunt at present, at any rate. If Hatfield 
chose to mention it, she could not help it, but wounded i 
pride would probably keep him silent until she should have : 
time to get away from Ottawa and home once more. She 
saw all the advantages which a marriage with Hatfield i 
offered. She was quite alive to the fact that many caps 
had been set at him in vain — that he was the most eligible 
bachelor in the House of Commons, that were she to accept 
him she would be accounted to have made the most bril- ! 
liant match of the season, and that her future would be 
assured. And yet she did not waver in her resolution to 
be true to her promise to Arthur now. Six months ago | 
when she had to decide between a life of self-denial and j 
hardship with the man she loved, or comfort apart from 
him, these comforts which were now offered her by another 
had seemed very precious to her. Now she scarce gave 
them a second thought. She at all events would sacrifice i 
them all to-morrow for life with Arthur at Prairie Cottage. 
Now that that haven was effaced from the earth and Arthur 
gone she knew not where, she sighed, womanlike, for the 
unattainable, more sincerely than she had sighed a half 
year ago for the comforts which a union with Hatfield 
would now assure for her. At any rate, she thought, she i 
had her own home yet and there she would go, and would ' 
remain. She was true as steel to Arthur now. 

To her aunt when she came up from luncheon she ' 
excused her a^bsence by saying she had a headache and had I 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


117 


returned to her room. Mr. Hatfield, she supposed, had 
gone to his own apartments probably preferring to lunch 
there quietly than to go alone to the dining-room. 

“We dine out this evening, you remember, and I do 
hope, Gertrude, you will be able to go. I know George has 
been invited.” Mrs. Watkins always spoke of Mr. Hatfield 
as George — “ and I do hope he will be able to go. It is 
such a pleasant house, every one says.” 

George, however, sent down a note shortly after to his 
aunt to say that he thought he would not venture out this 
evening as he needed further rest, and he asked her to make 
the fullest explanations to their host, the Hon. Mr. Sterling 
— a Cabinet Minister — as to his physical condition. He 
took care to put in the word “ physical,” surmising that 
the note would be read to Gertrude. 

“ Mr. Watkins is anxious that we should go to the 
Senate this afternoon as his motions about the Indians are 
to come up. Do you feel equal to going ?” asked Mrs. 
Watkins. 

Gertrude said she really did not feel up to it, but com- 
promised with her aunt by promising to go to the dinner 
party in the evening. 

“ It doesn’t matter very much, I fancy,” said her aunt, 
“ as I understand these motions are usually laid over once 
or twice before they are discussed, and Mr. Watkins half 
anticipates something of the kind to-day. I would have 
gone to the House with him but he had a horrid creature 
in tow — a Mr. McWhirter, who had just arrived in town, 
and fastened himself on the Senator as we came from 
luncheon. He knows all about the Indians, my dear, but 
he’s not the sort of man I care to go to the House in 
company with. As you are not going, I shall stay at home 
too, and take a rest before going out this evening.” 

As his wife anticipated, the Senator’s motions stood 
over to a future day. When they were called the Govern- 
ment leader asked that they stand, in order that he might 
consult his colleagues and make some enquiry respecting 
the subject matter of them. “ When would it be convenient 
to have therj brought ou ?” Senator Watkins asked. “ Oh, 


118 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


in a couple of days. How would Tuesday suit ?” asked the 
Minister across the floor. Senator Watkins would rather 
have them disposed of this week, to which the Minister 
demurred, as it would be impossible for him to get full 
information so soon. So Tuesday was named as the day 
and the matter was so far settled. But it was by no means 
satisfactory to McWhirter, who, as Mrs. Watkins said, had 
fastened himself on the Senator. No sooner was the 
matter disposed of in the House than Senator Watkins 
received a pressing invitation on a fragment of paper from 
McWhirter to come out to the lobby. That distinguished 
philanthropist was pacing up and down when the Senator 
came out. His linen duster had given place to a rather 
threadbare overcoat; a well worn fur cap and an attentuated 
muffler kept his upper portion warm. Huge overshoes 
covered his boots, whose leather legs showed their presence 
beneath the once black trowsers. He speedily explained 
to the Senator why he had sent in for him. Being a 
minister of the gospel, the Senator would understand, he 
was not blessed with much worldly wealth. The hundred 
dollars he had received from the Senator were already 
exhausted in the purchase of his return ticket and various 
other travelling expenses. The long and the short of it 
was that he could not stay over in Ottawa for a week, 
with no certainty at the end of that time as to when his 
evidence would be called for, his other engagements mean- 
time neglected and all his domestic affairs left to take care 
of themselves, for less than another couple of hundred 
dollars. The Senator pointed out that his motion would 
be on on Tuesday when in all human probability he would 
be granted a committee. Then the witnesses would be 
summoned and their fees paid. Until he got his committee 
of course he could do nothing for his friend, unless he put 
his hand in his own pocket, which, as the Senator remarked, 
he had already done to a sufficient extent. Whether the 
Kev. Mr. McWhirter was familiar with the delays of par- 
liamentary proceedings or was in financial straits, he 
declared he could not and would not remain until next 
week unless the Senator cpuld furnish fiuaijcial relief — the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


119 


upshot being that the Senator presented him with a $10 
bill to meet immediate and pressing wants, and promised, 
if he would remain until Saturday, to see him again and 
try to arrange matters so that he should remain until his 
evidence was called for. Of course it was out of the ques- 
tion that the man should be allowed to go away now, and 
we may so far anticipate as to mention that the Senator 
saw nothing for it on the Saturday, but to himself in the 
meantime pay the sum demanded. He would, of course, 
be recouped in due time when the committee met, but in 
the meantime he thought it would be as well that he should 
not mention the transaction to his wife, who had indulged 
in some well-meant but useless criticisms when he told her 
of having sent the first sum to MeWhirter. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

AN UNEXPECTED GUEST. 

As Senator and Mrs. Watkins and the beautiful Miss 
Southcote entered the drawing-room of their host that 
evening, the latter came forward to meet them, smiling, 
and at the same time with a look of solicitude on his 
countenance. 

“ Pm so glad you’ve come, even without our friend Hat- 
field. How is he, Mrs. Watkins ? I’m sure that with the 
kind attention which the doctor tells me you have been 
showing Jiim, he ought to be restored by this time.” 

“ He appeared almost so this morning, but this afternoon 
he seemed disinclined to risk coming out, though he charged 
me by a note to assure you, that while he thought he had 
better not come out, his condition was such that you need 
give yourself no uneasiness as to his being in his place for 
the vote you expect, on Friday I believe. He said he would 
not need a ‘ pair.’ ” 

“ I’m glad to hear it. I should be glad to hear that he 
had de^id^d to ‘ pair ’ some day in another sense, but he 


120 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


has hitherto been proof against Cupid’s darts.. A good 
wife is a great help to a politician, as IVe no doubt the 
Senator has found out by this time. IVe never known 
Hatfield inactive for so long. And the doctor tells me he 
seems to like his prison bars. Can you corroborate this, 
Miss Southcote ? ” asked the minister, turning to Gertrude, 
who murmured a rather unintellegible reply. 

“ I had a note from him this afternoon too,” he went on, 
without noticing, or seeming at any rate to notice her 
embarrassment, “ and I really was at a loss for a substitute 
to fill his place which is an important one, as he would 
have had the honor of taking you in, Miss Southcote. 
Fortunately a young gentleman, whose father showed me 
much kindness in early days — for I went to school with 
him — came to see me just at this critical juncture, so I 
invited him to fill Hatfield’s place, which I hope he may do 
acceptably, I did not tell him of the honor in store for 
him. Left him to find that out for himself, all in good 
time. He seems a fine young fellow. Ah, I think he is 
coming — all the rest are here, I believe,” and Mr. Sterling 
looked round the room. 

The minister’s wife had engaged the Senator in conver- 
sation, while on their right a couple, of French members of 
parliament were talking together. These members had 
wives with whom a certain railway magnate and a 
Montreal merchant were conversing. This merchant, 
Gertrude had already recognized as her travelling acquain- 
tance, Mr. Graham, and had exchanged a bow with him. 
Another member of parliament and his daughter, a small, 
but talkative young lady, were in conversation with the 
daughter of the house, a rather handsome girl with a frank 
and winning manner. These made up the party, with the 
exception of the young gentleman, who was announced at 
the moment Mr. Sterling made the last remark already 
quoted. 

The next moment was one of the most trying, and yet 
one of the happiest in Gertrude’s life — for the young man 
w]\o entered was none other than Arthur Rashfellow ! 

Very handsome he certainly looked in evening dress, 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR, 


121 


though his face and hands showed unmistakeahle signs of 
exposure to the elements. He stood still and colored to 
the roots of his curly hair as his eye fell on the group imme- 
diately before him. As for Gertrude, the surprise was ten- 
fold greater to her than to him. He had not expected to 
meet her to-night, but he knew she was in the Capital 
and had in fact seen her. She, till that moment, knew not 
whether he was dead or alive — and her head swam and 
she thought she was about to swoon. Fortunately a huge 
group of ferns, behind which she involuntarily shrank, hid 
her from the eyes of all save her aunt and their host, who 
at once stepped forward and shook Arthur cordially by the 
hand. Seeing that the young man was known to the party 
among whom he now stood, Mr. Sterling said, “ 1 see you 
need no introduction, Kashfellow, except to my wife ” — to 
whom he immediately presented him. “ My dear, the Sen- 
ator will take you in. Now, Mrs. Watkins ” — saying which 
he gave his arm to the Senator’s wife, whose presence of 
mind had not for a moment deserted her, as she gave the 
tips of her fingers to Arthur, with a rather icy smile and 
the remark, “ who would have thought to see you here.” 
The Senator had had time only to cry out “ why, Rash- 
fellow, my boy, ’pon my word ?” when he was borne off* by 
his hostess and Arthur and Gertrude stood side by side. 

It is a singular, but authentic fact, that the only words 
which passed between this young couple, whose acquain- 
tance dated from childhood, as they followed in the rear 
portion of this procession to the dining-room, were a remark 
by Arthur to the effect that it was a very cold night, fol- 
lowed by a trembling “ yes, very,” from Gertrude. 

The custom still prevailed at this table of marking each 
guest’s place by a card bearing his or her name, and as they 
reached their places Arthur picked up the card before him, 
having first appropriated the button-hole bouquet which lay 
on it, read “ Mr. Hatfield, M. P.” 

“ I’ve got into a wrong place. Miss Southcote,” he said. 
At the “ Miss Southcote ” Gertrude’s heart sank, but she 
answered : 

“ Oh, no, I think not. Mr, Hatfield is not well, and your 


122 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


coming on the scene being quite unexpected, you were 
assigned to his place.” She was ready to add, “ and very 
glad I am of it,” but the look which came into his face that 
instant repelled her. 

“ Who is this Mr. Hatfield ?” he asked, though all the 
the world knew who Hatfield was. “Does he wear 
a black velvet coat and is he dark and — and — bald ?” and 
he turned almost fiercely to Gertrude as he asked the 
question. 

“Not bald, certainly,” she answered quietly, “ though 
your description otherwise answers. He wears a black 
velvet coat sometimes. He had one on this morning in 
fact,” and she coloured slightly as she spoke of that morning. 

“ I thought so !” growled Arthur. They were not 
making much headway towards a reconciliation. So 
thought Mrs. Watkins, as she eyed them sharply from a 
distance. Gertrude was silent. She hardly knew what 
to say, for she did not wish her neighbors’ attention to be 
attracted to them, as it certainly would if he continued in 
this strain. It was a trying ordeal for the young lady. 
Here by her side sat the young man to meet whom once 
more had been her constant prayer for months past, and 
yet she scarcely dare speak to him. She was rejoiced to 
see how handsome he was, and how manly his bearing. 
He, for his part, was, if possible, more deeply in love with 
her than before. But he had spent many bitter days since 
they last met, and this one had been the bitterest of all. 
He had seen her being made love to by another man, and 
lending, apparently a willing ear. He had tried to make 
himself believe that the attentions of this man were ob- 
noxious to her, but the evidence was all the other way. 
He had rushed about endeavoring to do the business on 
which he had come to Ottawa, but had found it difficult to 
keep his wits together. He had called, among others, 
upon the Minister whom he had heard his father often 
mention. When he told the Hon. Mr. Sterling where he 
had been and what his errand was, that gentleman looked 
thoughtful for a moment, glanced at a' paper which lay 
upou his table, aud asked him, iii a kindly way, not to 


THE CAHAHTAN SENATOR. 


125 


hasten his movements, to stay in town a few days, and to 
say nothing to anyone as to whence he came or what his 
business was — and he would see what could be done. Then 
he had asked him to dinner, and Arthur had thought it to 
his interest to accept. It would serve, too, he hoped, to 
distract his thoughts. And now he found that he was 
asked only to fill the place of that other man, who could 
not come — that man who had spent the day in making 
love to Gertrude, who was a wealthy member of Parlia- 
ment, and could afibrd to let her spend an hour or two 
apart from him, amusing herself with a former lover 
whom she had cast ofif! He did not wonder at the man’s 
infatuation, for he saw that she was more beautiful than 
ever. She was a woman now, and one of whom any lover 
might feel proud ; and doubtless this man was proud of 
her, and would ask her how her former lover had borne 
himself, how he had taken the dose prepared for him; 
whether he had snatched at the chance to make a fool of 
himself again, by a further struggle against fate. His 
heated fancy, filled with such bitter thoughts, Arthur sat 
sullenly silent. 

Gertrude made an effort to draw him out, asking gently 
where he had been, and how he had fared since last they met. 

“ Oh, nowhere you’d care to hear of — away out west.*’ 
Under other circumstances he would have disregarded his 
host’s injunction to keep silent as to his late movements, 
but now he determined to follow his advice. “ I had some 
business to do down here, so I came. I’m sorry, now, I 
did so. I was better where I was. I hope to get my 
business over soon and be off again.” He spoke so bitterly 
that Gertrude with difficulty kept the tears from filling 
her eyes. She was aware that many eyes were upon her, 
and she endeavored to preserve her w’onted outward calm- 
ness. She knew that her aunt was watching her. Once 
she caught the kindly, frank eye of Mr. Graham looking 
at her over a bank of flowers in the middle of the table. 
She made one other unavailing attempt to draw Artlr 
into kindly conversation. 


124 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


“ Have you sold your farm, Arthur ? It was perhaps 
not a fortunate question. Had she been less distracted by 
hopes and fears, she would not have asked it. Perhaps 
she hoped he would give her a whispered invitation to go 
again to live there with him, in which case she was now 
willing to accept. Perhaps he had, notwithstanding her 
heartless treatment, built another home for her, and would 
communicate the joyful news — instead of that he said 
merely : 

“ No — but it s as good as sold, I shan’t go back there 
again ! ” 

He spoke almost brusquely, and showed such a disin- 
clination for conversation, at all events with her, that she, 
fearing their strained relations would be the subject of 
observation, was reluctantly forced to turn to her neighbor 
on the left, who was endeavoring to attract the attention 
of the belle of the evening by exclamations of admiration 
at the beauty of the fiowers before them. He was a dapper 
little man, a member of Parliament, with a shining bald pate 
and well brushed whiskers, who talked in a loud platform 
voice. 

“ Ah, I see you admire flowers, Miss Southcote. These 
are very fine. I saw Hatfield buying some very fine ones 
last week. I suppose you saw them. Fine fellow, Hatfield. 
One of our rising men. You are sort of cousins, I believe, 
which gives you a claim to lots of bouquets I suppose. 
No, not cousins ? Well so, much the better — so much the 
greater compliment, don’t you see ? ” 

The man rattled on in his loud clear voice, always 
bringing in the name of Hatfield at short intervals, until 
Gertrude would have been glad to have seen him muzzled. 
Her head almost swam as she sat and scarcely pretended to 
listen. She feared that Arthur would interfere with some 
angry explanation and create a scene— but she heard him 
indulging in some very laconic answers to the enquiries 
someone was directing to him. “ Beastly place. Ottawa.” 
“Want to get away soon as I can.” “Yes?” “No” — 
and then he seemed to lapse into silence. She heard the 
Senator dilating upon some defects in the construction of 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


125 


the C. P. R. to the hostess. She heard the railway magnate 
talking about art with the daughter of the house. She 
heard someone rallying Graham upon the subject of Im- 
perial Federation, and heard his good natured reply that 
that was the subject which had brought him to Ottawa 
now. She heard her aunt and the minister talking of 
the ladies at the last drawing-room. She heard the 
daughter of the M. P. beside her giving her impressions 
of Ottawa to Arthur. She heard reminiscences in French 
of the last election of one of the members. She heard 
fragments of all these conversations and all the time she 
was conscious of the loud clear voice of the man beside 
her, who seemed to talk of no one but Hatfield. Hatfield 
in the house. Hatfield on the stump. Hatfield’s talents, 
and Hatfield’s wealth and prospects in the political future. 
He even informed her confidentially that when a Hatfield 
party was formed, he would be in it. She was glad indeed 
when the ordeal was over and the ladies rose. 

Before she left the table she said to Arthur that she 
hoped 'they would see him soon. Was he staying at the 
Russell ? Yes, he was, but he hated hotels and would get 
away from it as soon as possible. If he had to remain, he 
thought he would get a room somewhere and take his meals 
at the club, where he had been “ put up ” by a friend. 
She had no furthur opportunity for conversation with him 
that evening. Things were evidently going from bad to 
worse with him. 

The Senator was in good spirits as they drove home. 
“ Uncommonly good dinner, my dear,” he said. “ Our host 
evidently keeps a good cook. He’s not a half bad sort of 
fellow and about the only one of the Cabinet I care to dine 
with.” He might have added, or who cared to have him to 
dinner. “ I gave him and our railroad friend some valuable 
points. He knew too much to say anything about the 
Kickaways, though I could see he was dying to. He knew 
that Watkins would not be caught with chaff. Eh, Ger- 
trude, by the way, what’s brought your old beau on the 
scene just now ? He looked rather glum, I thought. I 
hope there isn’t going to be another fire ! My dear, we must 


126 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


look to our fire escapes. Rather high up for a jump, eh, 
my dear !” 

Mrs. Watkins and Gertrude did not seem inclined to 
join in his hilarity. Gei trude answered a few questions as 
to Arthur, and told her aunt all that she knew about 
the cause of his being here, which was, as we have seen, 
very little. As soon as they had reached their apartments 
she went to her own room, into which her aunt followed 
her. 

" Tell me, Gertrude, truly,” s'he said, is there anything 
yet — between that young man and you ?” 

“ No, there is not, aunt — but — oh, aunt — I love him 
more than ever — though he seems to be so changed” — and 
she burst into a tears. Her aunt endeavored to soothe 
her, but her efforts for a time .were fruitless. At length 
she dried her eyes and, looking up, said : 

“ Aunt Caroline, I think I really must go home. You 
have been very kind to me and I have been here now nearly 
a month. It is selfish of me to have stayed so long from 
home, where I think I am needed.” 

“ Nonsense, Gertrude,” said her aunt. “ I understood 
you were to stay the session. They will do very well with- 
out you at home.” Mrs. Watkins turned the matter over 
quickly in her mind. If there were any danger from Arthur’s 
presence, it would be less here than should Gertrude return 
home. If the young man was in pursuit of her still he 
would surely follow her sooner or later to her home, and 
she knew perfectly well from experience that he would 
meet with less opposition there than here. Meantime he did 
not seem in the humour for a renewal of the engagement. 
Then, again, she had great hopes of Hatfield, which would 
come to naught should the girl go away now. 

“ I cannot — cannot stay longer, I fear, dear aunt,” said 
the unhappy girl. 

“You are nervous and unsettled by this — this sudden 
incident. You will feel better after a night’s rest. You 
cannot think of going before the ball on the lOth. We 
have accepted, and you know you are expected to be there. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


127 


George would be so disappointed should you go** As light 
flush, which came into the girl’s face at the mention of 
Hatfield’s name, arrested her aunt’s attention, and caused 
her to say, “ Gertrude, I have hoped, I confess, that you 
might take a fancy to George, and he to you. Such a 
thing, of course, depends upon yourselves, and your 
mutual — a — sentiments. But were such a match possible, it 
would be a most suitable one, and, I assure you, would be 
very gratifying to the Senator and myself.” “Arthur has 
evidently treated her coldly,” thought Mrs. Watkins, 
“ indeed, I could see that much for myself, and it may be 
possible to direct her thoughts in a new channel, if they 
have not already run in that direction. Desperate cases 
call for desperate remedies. I have always had influence 
with her, and I must exert it now. I believe George only 
requires encouragement, if I an^ any judge in such matters.” 

Gertrude’s answer, however, showed her that the case 
was more desperate than she supposed, for her niece said 
simply : 

“Aunt, that is impossible! Mr. Hatfield asked me to 
be his wife this very day, and I — I told him no.” 

“ Told him you would not have him, do you mean ?” 

“ Yes, aunt. How could I do otherwise ? I could not 
marry a man I do not love, while I do love another!” 

“ What, throw over a man like George for such a one 
as Arthur ! I don’t wish to say anything to the detriment 
of your boy beau, but remember, Gertrude, how hopeless 
this attachment has been in the past, and be just to your- 
self.” 

But no amount of argument could shake the girl. So 
at length she desisted, thinking it best to trust to her old 
allies, time and circumstances, and to aid them all she 
could when opportunity offered. She kissed her niece 
good night and left her. 

“ What, refuse George Hatfield, and all for that boy. 
The girl must be mad !” was the simple commentary of 
the Senator w^en the news was communicated to him. 
“She’ll think better of it, never fear,” he added, as he 
closed his eyes for the night. 


128 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Next morning Arthur met Graham accidentally at the 
breakfast-table. The latter was bright and cheerful as 
usual, while the younger man seemed so gloomy and^ out 
of sorts that his companion could not help remarking it. 

"Did last night’s good dinner disagree with you?” 
asked the Montreal man, with a smile. 

" Yes, it did — uncommonly,” answered Arthur, lugub- 
riously. 

His companion eyed him for a few moments. Then he 
said : 

“Look here, Rashfellow, do you remember my injunc- 
tion to you the last time I saw you — not to say die and 
give up. You seem as if you were going to disregard my 
advice. I had my eye on you last night. I think I know 
what ails you, and you don’t go the right way about ob- 
taining a cure.” 

“ 1 hank you, Graham, hut my disease has become so 
hrmly rooted that I shall never be rid of it. It has now 
issumed an acute form.” 

“ Look here, old fellow, forgive my seeming impertinence. 
Y’ou are in love with a certain young lady and when you 
meet her after a long separation, you treat her almost 
rudely. However do you expect to win in that way ?” 

" That’s all very well — but suppose some other fellow 
has stepped in meantime and dethroned you — Graham, I 
am talking to you as I would to no one else. You’ve 
always shown me kindness. Do you know a man named 
Hatfield ?” 

“ What Hatfield, the member — is he your rival ?” 

Arthur bowed his head in token of assent. 

He’s a formidable rival — there’s no concealing that. 
Yet I would say this much to you, Rashfellow. If I did not 
know that you were steadfast and unchangeable in your 
affections, I would say, perhaps, try and forget this girl. 
As it is I will only say that I believe she is not indifferent 
to you. Though Hatfield is formidable, I would not take 
it for granted that he is irresistible. If opportunity pre- 
sents itself again, change your manner. Don’t give up in 
despair. I know you will not be any happier for taking 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


129 


the other course. It’s not your nature to get over a thing 
of this kind as some men would — or, as I’ve said, I might 
be less ready to advise as I do. I wouldn’t give up such 
a girl as that for all the Hatfields in the universe !” said 
Graham as he rose from the table. 

"All very well,” thought Arthur, " but it’s too late now 1 
Graham’s a good fellow, but he doesn’t know it alL” 


CHAPTER XV. 

WAITING ON A MINISTER. 

There were three people in Ottawa who were thoroughly 
wretched for several days succeeding the day upon which 
the events narrated in the two preceding hapters took place- 
There were no doubt others who were wretched. The dis- 
appointed politicians who have lost an election or missed a 
seat in the Cabinet ; the baffled lobbyists who have come 
full of hope, carrying their heads high and expecting to 
sweep away all opposition to their schemes or extinguish 
the projects of their opponents as scon as they have appeared 
on the scene, who are prepared, if 'necessary, to browbeat 
Ministers, and bully, if they cannot cajole, their own mem- 
bers, and after a few days of ineffectual waiting and watch- 
ing, have arrived at a sickening sense of their own insig- 
nificance, and have retired to seats in the hotel lobbies, 
where they sadly meditate a retreat homewards; the dis- 
gusted office-seekers, who have felt that their superior 
claims are again about to be ignored in favor of persons, 
in their eyes, infinitely less deserving ; the contractors, and 
railway and other promoters, whose tenders and pet 
schemes have been quietly passed over or ignominiously 
pigeon-holed ; the hundred and one other hangers-on who 
have not got what they wanted, and have exhausted all 
sources of influence at their command, and have vowed 
their vows of vengeance — representatives of all these nu- 
merous classes were already present at the capital, filled 


130 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


with reflections so bitter as to entitle them to be classed 
among the wretched of the earth. Still most of them felt 
a consciousness more or less dim of the possible dawn of 
the day to which every dog, however wretched, is pro- 
verbially entitled to look as his special day of recompense 
and of retribution to his adversaries. No hope of such a 
dawn for them seemed possible now to either Gertrude or 
Arthur, while Hatfield, if not entirely cast down, having 
his interest in public affairs to support him, was still a 
good deal more wretched than he ever remembered having 
been, at all events since the day when, through over con- 
fidence, he had allowed himself to be defeated in a munici- 
pal election contest — a disaster, however, which his subse- 
quent victory in a wider field had amply recompensed to him. 

Hatfield was too much of a practical politician to be 
an utterly disconsolate lover, yet too much in love to be 
able to console himself for the time being with politics. 
He set himself to reading the newspapers, to parliamen- 
tary returns as well as lighter literature. He read the 
newspaper paragraphs regarding himself, in which the 
universal wish for his speedy restoration to health and his 
parliamentary duties was expressed in ministerialist and 
opposition press alike. He read the speeches in the house, 
but his mind refused to follow them. The glories of King 
Solomon*s Mines even failed to divert his mind completely 
from the thoughts which were at present engrossing it. 
He had refused to take Gertrude’s answer as a final one 
and he had, as a general thing, a faith in his “ star,” and 
tried to make himself believe that it would soon be in the 
ascendant again. He was fully aware of his eligibility and 
could see no reason — looking at the matter from a practi- 
cal standpoint — why his suit should not in the end be 
successful. There was something, however, in the young 
lady’s manner and words which gave him uneasiness and 
many misgivings as to the ultimate result. Then he 
endeavored as a practical politician to call to his aid the 
old adage as to there being as good fish in the sea as ever 
were caught — or as refused to be caught, in the present 
case — and he knew that he had but 5) cast in his hook 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


131 


and many of these other good fish would jump at it. But 
he found this very poor consolation for the present. When 
a man has set his heart upon salmon he does not care to be 
told that he can have cod or mackerel. Altogether Hat- 
field spent a wretched day after his interview with 
Gertrude in the drawing-room and the friends who looked 
in upon him during the day and evening did not manage to 
raise his spirits very much. 

Next morning he thought he must get out. Though he 
had rather liked his confinement before, it was now becom- 
ing unendurable. He deemed it wisest to keep away from 
Gertrude for the present, feeling that absence for a time 
would increase his chances, if he had any at all. So he 
determined to perform some departmental duties for some 
of his neglected constituents, a pile of whose letters lay on 
the table before him. One wanted certain fishing privileges, 
another had heard of a vacancy in the customs and, having 
already passed the civil service examination and waited for 
two years, living on his parents and giving up all chances 
of more lucrative employment, he was now ready to drop 
into the vacant place. One young man would like a post 
in the Northwest. Two or three others wrote simultaneously 
announcing the death of a country postmaster and each 
pressing his claim to the appointment — salary some $25 per 
year. Still another wanted a license to sell postage stamps 
in the county town. These and many other like missives 
Hatfield placed in a bundle enclosing them with an india 
rubber band and putting them in the pocket of his over- 
coat, sallied forth. Going down in the elevator he became 
conscious of the presence of a young man with curly hair 
who stood and scowled upon him as they descended. The 
scowl upon the good-looking face did not seem natural to 
it. He thought the young man handsome and manly-look- 
ing, but wondered why he scowled so. He should have 
thought good nature and generosity his characteristics, 
were it not for this expression of marked displeasure.. 

A half hour later as he sat in the outer room of one of 
the minister’s offices, waiting his turn to be admitted, Mr. 
Sterling entered with the young man he had seen in the 
hotel ekvatOT. 


132 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


How do, Hatfield. Glad to see you out again. So sorry 
you were unable to be with us last night,” said the minister, 
and before Hatfield had time to more than mutter some- 
thing in answer about his arm still troubling him, the 
minister and the young man had disappeared through the 
green baize door which led to the room of the depart- 
mental chief whom he desired to see. 

“ Pretty cool, after Pve been here already fifteen minutes,” 
said Hatfield to the private secretary who sat writing at 
his desk. “ Some young constituent who wants a place, I 
suppose, and will probably get it if all competitors’ are 
passed over as they passed me by. Do you know him ?” 

The secretary answered in the negative and went on 
with his work, with that dignified deliberation character- 
istic of Governmental secretaries. A pile of letters lay 
before him finished and ready for the signature of his chief. 
He was now at work on another, and many more of a simi- 
lar strain were to follow. They contained a most courteous 
and elaborate announcement of the fact that the Minister 
had at present no vacancy in his department to which the 
person addressed or the one for whom that person had 
written could at present be appointed, but that the letter, 
being acknowledged, would be kept on fyle, and should it 
be possible in the future, etc., etc. The letters were always 
addressed to “ My dear So-and-So ” by name. Hatfield 
knew their whole formula by heart, and as he watched the 
young secretary elaborately penning the well-worn sen- 
tences which brought such mingled feelings of disappoint- 
ment and hope to the recipients, he wondered whether his 
daily occupation ever disturbed the young man’s rest at 
night. It seemed so sad and funereal a routine, this quietly 
and decently burying the aspirations of the anxious appli- 
cants, that Hatfield could not help comparing it in his 
mind to the noiseless duties of the undertaker as he makes 
the “ final arrangements.” Occasionally the young man 
took time to twirl his moustache or look out of the window 
at the beautiful view, and it was evident that his mind 
was in nowise clouded by the mournful character of his 
occupation. Hatfield found temporary relief from the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


133 


contemplation of these proceedings by taking up the local 
paper from the Minister’s county town, which with many 
other country papers lay upon the table or were arranged 
upon files in the little waiting-room without. Hatfield’s 
patience was about exhausted when an electric bell sounded 
and the Secretary disappeared behind the green baize door. 
Presently he returned and announced the coast clear for 
Mr. Hatfield, the brother Minister and his young protege 
having made their exit, by another door, into the hallway. 

“ I wonder who that young fellow is,” said Hatfield, 
his thoughts again reverting to Rashfellow, (for it was he). 
‘‘ He doesn’t look like an ordinary office-seeker, and why 
the dickens do the Ministers make so much of him.” 

Meanwhile Arthur strode down the corridor alongside 
Mr. Sterling, who remarked : 

“ That was Mr. Hatfield, the rising young member 
from the maritime provinces, whom we left waiting in the 
ante-room. I did not care to introduce you just at present. 
It was he whose place you took so opportunely — and 
acceptably — at dinner last evening.” 

Arthur winced a little, noticing which the Minister 
went on : 

“ It is said he is rather attentive to the young lady you 
took in, and as he has had frequent opportunities of mak- 
ing himself agreeable — she being the niece of his uncle. 
Senator Watkin’s wife — you could scarcely expect to 
entirely displace him in an evening — though I forgot by 
the way,” said the Minister, noticing the by no means 
pleasant expression the young man’s face had assumed, 
you and Miss Southcote had met before, which no doubt 
accounts for the headway you made against such odds. 
You will have an opportunity to renew the acquaintance 
at the ball at Madame Bureau’s on Wednesday next, if not 
sooner. You must certainly remain over for that, if for 
nothing else. You received your card ?” 

Arthur answered in the affirmative and the minister 
shook hands and pursued his way to his own department, 
leaving his young friend at the main entrance. The 
helmeted Dominion policeman, in his trim uniform, saluted 


134 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


the young man whom he had seen paiUng from the 
minister, as he held open the door for liim. 

Arthur passed out in hot haste. He felt his face burn- 
ing and longed to face the brae ng winter air. Could he 
not go anywhere without seeing or hearing of this fellow 
Hatfield ? What was he but a blue-nosed upstart, with plenty 
of money and ‘^gab” no doubt? That was enough for Ger- 
trude now, it seemed. This morning after breakfast he had 
thought on what Graham had said to him and had almost 
made up his mind to stay at the hotel and seek out Gertrude 
and bare his heart to her once more. He thought it was 
too late, as she was evidently committed to this man, but 
his determination to steel his heart had begun to waver, 
and he had, after Graham’s words, softened a good deal — 
after all, he thought he would have it from her own lips if she 
were going to marry the man, who, it seenaed, was confined 
to his room. But a short time after he saw the man in the 
elevator evidently restored to health. He scowled as he 
thought bitterly that an interview with Gertrude would be 
no comfort to himself or her now. Still he had not quite 
made up his mind, until he had again seen Hatfield in the 
ante-room and heard the subsequent words of Mr. Sterling 
about him and the girl he had loved, but who loved him 
no longer. It was evidently in everybody’s mouth, and the 
best thing he could do would be to keep out of the way as 
much as possible. He could not well leave the city, but he 
could leave the hotel and seek quarters elsewhere. 

Arthur, was, as the reader has no doubt already judged, 
of an impetuous temperament. He accordingly forthwith 
went and secured a room in some chambers convenient to 
the club and had his luggage removed there. Then he 
started out for a long tramp. He must tire himself with 
a long walk. That he thought was his only salvation in his 
present state of mind. He had during the previous day 
tramped the whole city over pretty much, and had also 
walked some distance down the river, as also up to the 
Cliaudiere. Now he would would leave the beautiful Ottawa 
valley behind, walk out by the Rideau Canal into the 
country— anywhere so long as there were a good stretch 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


135 


before him. The more dreary the walk the better, he 
thought, as he struck out through Stewarton into the 
country. The wind had risen somewhat and blew an 
occasional swirl of snow across his path and into his face. 
He took the middle of the road stepping aside every 
now and then into the deep snow to make way for a 
farmer s sleigh or a more fashionable equipage with dangling 
robes, containing a family party from the city. Even the 
jingling music of the sleigh bells jarred upon Arthur sears. 
They, as well as the rest of the world, seemed out of tune 
to him, as he plunged along in the sleigh tracks with bright- 
ening color on his cheek, but a load on his heart. At one 
moment he thought he would push right on and leave 
those towers and stately piles which loomed from Parlia- 
ment Hill over the city behind him, dominating the entire 
view in that direction, and not return beneath their shadow. 
Only further humiliation and anguish were in store for 
him, he thought, if he returned. Why had he thought of 
coming to Ottawa at all ? He certainly would not have, 
had he known what was in store for him. He even 
doubted whether he would have, had he known beforehand 
of Gertrude’s presence here. It was already late in the 
afternoon before he began to consider that having come so 
many hundred miles on business, it would be unmanly in 
him now to go off without having closed one way or another 
the business which had brought him, and with a sigh he 
turned to retrace his steps. Presently as he strode moodily 
along the sound of sleigh bells caused him involuntarily to 
step aside to allow a dashing equipage to pass. Suddenly 
he heard his name called out by a musical voice and look- 
ing up found himself face to face with his hostess of the 
previous everting and her good-humored daughter. 

“ Why, Mr. Rashfellow, wherever have you been ?” 
exclaimed Miss Sterling with hearty good humor. “ You 
must be nearly frozen,” she added, as she noticed the frost 
on his moustache, which his rapid walk in the sharp wind 
had produced. 

‘‘ Won’t you get in and return to town with us ?” said 
the mother kindly, as she noticed that the young man 


136 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


looked tired and troubled. “We have gone far enough 
against this wind and are about returning.” 

Arthur endeavored to excuse himself, but the ladies 
pulled the robe from the seat opposite them, and pressed 
him to get in with such kindly earnestness that he saw he 
could not without rudeness refuse to do so. 

“ Papa tells me ycu will be here until after Madame 
Bureau’s ball next week,” said the younger lady. “ It will 
be one of the events of the session, and I hear she is making 
great preparations.” Then observing that Arthur did not 
display much interest in the subject of the forthcoming 
ball, she turned the conversation to the Northwest, asking 
him many questions about the country, the people and his 
life there, drawing the young man out in spite of himself, 
until he found himself extolling the country and its 
climate in glowing terms. The kindliness of the ladies, 
the quick gliding motion as the horses, without being 
urged by the fur-caped coachman, sped toward the town, 
revived the young man’s spirits somewhat and he talked 
with something of his old time gaiety. Though he could 
make no claim to brilliancy, Arthur had always had a 
certain fresh and good-humored vivacity about him 
which ladies liked, and which his troubles had not yet 
crushed out, and the reaction from his former mood was 
apparent in his talk. They turned into Sparks street 
and as they drove up it a sleigh from the opposite direction 
passed containing two ladies. Arthur saw Mrs. Sterling 
and her daughter bow, and turned in time to catch a glimpse 
of Mrs. Watkins and Gertrude who were smilingly acknow- 
ledging the recognition. He grasped his fur cap and saw 
the other sleigh pull up by direction of Mrs. Watkins at a 
cross street, down which at that moment Hatfield came 
and greeted the two ladies. 

This latter incident served to turn Arthur’s thoughts 
into their former channel and as he was put down at the 
point he had desired, near his lodgings, his spirits had 
again collapsed 

“ By the way, Mr. Rashfellow,” said Miss Sterling, “ a 
friend of mine has asked me to aid her in making up a 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


137 


skating party at the rink on Saturday, and I do so hope 
you will come. Please do. I’m sure you are a good skater. 
We never take no for an answer,” she added, smiling, as 
the young man stood irresolute, and, without awaiting a 
reply, mother and daughter drove off, bowing a pleasant 
adieu. 

‘‘ He seems such a nice young fellow, but has had some 
trouble, I should think. Has papa said anything to you 
about it, mamma ? ” 

“ Nothing, dear, except what you have heard. I under- 
stand he is here on some business with the Indian Depart- 
ment. What it is, I don’t know. Your papa thought a 
great deal of his father, and has taken rather a fancy to 
the young man, who does seem a good-hearted, gentle- 
manly young fellow enough, when he throws off the 
moodiness which I have also observed.” 

Meanwhile, at the next street corner, as Arthur could 
still observe from where he stood, Hatfield was exchanging 
greetings with Mrs. Watkins and Gertrude. 

Oh, I’m almost as good as new, ' said the young 
member, smiling and showing no trace of the embarrass- 
ment he felt at meeting Gertrude for the first time since 
their memorable interview of the day before. “ My arm 
is a trifle stifi* and sore yet,, but that doesn’t trouble me 
much. I’ve spent the morning kicking my heels about the 
departments, waiting the convenience of ministers to have 
my requests pigeon-holed or refused on the spot, while 
some young stranger, with more influence perhaps, waltzes 
in ahead and gets just what he wants.” 

Hatfield spoke in a light bantering tone but, neverthe- 
less, Arthur’s having been given precedence to him in one 
of the departments w^*s still in his mind. 

Ministers have a way of forgetting sometimes who 
their friends are, have they not ? ” said Mrs. Watkins 
with a meaning glance and a smile. 

“ Oh, yes — in which, however, they but resemble almost 
all other less exalted mortals. That much may be said in 
extenuation,” sajdng which, Hatfleld raised his fur cap, and 
the ladies drove on. 


138 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


“ Why did you not speak to him, Gertrude ? ” ' queried 
Mrs. Watkins. I think he was feeling a little hurt at 
your want of sympathy.*' 

" I did speak to him, Aunt. I asked him how his arm 
was, and when he said it was so nearly well, surely there 
was no necessity for wasting more sympathy on a subject 
he treated so lightly himself.** 

Gertrude spoke with a slight trace of asperity, as much 
as she ever shewed to her aunt, or, in fact, to anyone. 

Ah, I see how it is,** returned her aunt with a wearied 
sigh, “ the sight of that young man Arthur has turned 
your thoughts from the common sense channel which I 
hoped they were taking. Now, if he would only take to 
Blanche, there might be some chance for him and for you 
as well. She is a kind-hearted lady-like girl and her 
father has the power to make something of him.** 

She spoke of Miss Sterling with whom they had 
just seen Arthur driving. She always spoke of her as 
Blanche behind her back, though never in her presence. 

“ I am sure I hope he may — if — if — it will be for his 
advantage,** said poor Gertrude, in a tone which completely 
belied h&r words. 

“ Yes, her father seems to take a decided interest in 
Arthur, and could give him. a position if he liked, and 
Blanche would certainly make him an excellent wife,” she 
was about to add “ a much better wife than he deserves,** 
but checking herself, continued : “ of course he could never 
take anything like the position George occupies, even if 
he had ability sufficient to take a part in politics. George 
will be a minister himself some day, if he chooses ; at all 
events he will be a leader, whether he cares to take office 
or not. His wealth fortunately makes that a matter of no 
very great consequence to him — though I hope myself to 
see him enter the Government some day. It gives a man 
an authority, and a recognized position which of course a 
mere private member, however eminent, cannot have. His 
wife will undoubtedly be a leader in society, if she chooses, 
at once. ^ That is why so many mothers are so anxious to 
secure him for their daughters.** 


THE CANADIAN SENATOtl. 


139 


Gertrude was somewhat accustomed now to this sort of 
thing from her aunt. Her beautiful brown eyes were 
bent on the far olf Laurentian hills which were now with- 
in view. She was thinking whether there could be any- 
thing in what her aunt had suggested with regard to Arthur 
and Blanche. The thought brought a pang to her heart 
and caused her lip to tremble. Her fine nostrils dilated, 
and tears came to her eyes. Fortunately the coldness of 
the day justified all these signs without their suggesting 
to the observer the tenor of her thoughts. Why had 
Blanche’s father and mother taken up Arthur as they 
seemed to have ? If he and Arthur’s father had been such 
warm and intimate friends, how was it she had not 
heard of it before ? Might there not be some ground for 
supposing that the father had not thrown Arthur in his 
daughter’s way without design, or, at all events, that he 
had no objections to an intimacy growing up between 
them, as it evidently was growing up ? Gertrude fully 
recognized the advantages which such an alliance would 
offer to Arthur. It would, no doubt, be the making of him, 
and she must consider his interest first of all, however 
bitter the thought might be to her. She was sure that 
Arthur could not be in love with Blanche. That, of course, 
she told herself many times, was out of the question. But 
then he was evidently not quite himself — that is, his old 
self. He was evidently distressed and piqued, and a man 
in that state, she thought, is ready to do almost anything. 
While she tried to feel glad at the thought that good 
fortune might be in store for Arthur, the thought was too 
heavy a load for her heart, which sank within her. 

“ But do you think she would marry him unless she 
knew he loved her ?” asked Gertrude, putting her thought 
into words, as she observed that her aunt had paused as if 
for a remark from her. Gertrude had, however, no doubt now 
that this young lady would marry Arthur if she got the 
chance. She had begun to think of her as a horrid design- 
ing girl — though she was in truth a good and gentle young 
lady. 

‘'Who would marry, who? Oh, if you mean Blanche 


140 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


marry Arthur — I don’t know. I’m sure, I hope so — but I 
was speaking of George.” 

“ Aunt, I hope you won’t speak about George to rne 
any more — not in that way at least — if I am to remain 
with you another week. I’m sure he’s everything you say, 
but I’m sure also that he wouldn’t care for a wife who 
didn’t care for him.” 

Gertrude spoke so resolutely that her aunt thought it 
best to drop the subject — at any rate for the present. She 
merely raised her eyebows and her handsome head a trifle 
higher as she and her niece continued their sleigh-drive. 


CHAPTER XVL 

THE SENATOR MAKES HIS MOTION. 

Senator Watkins’ notice of motion respecting the Kick- 
aways excited a widespread interest. There had been a 
good deal of talk about the Indians in general and the way 
in which they were being treated by the government 
officials. It was said that some of the bands were at the 
point of starvation, that what food they got was bad, that 
musty flour, rotten pork and other deleterious articles were 
being supplied to them by dishonest contractors and in- 
human agents. It was charged that their petitions for food, 
clothing, seed and implements were ignored and that their 
moral welfare v^as not properly looked after, and in fact 
that gross immorality was allowed and even practised by 
those in the service of the government on the reserves. The 
humanitarian public was accordingly interested in the 
Senator’s forthcoming motion in expectation of having some 
light thrown upon these alleged grievances and measures 
taken for their redress. 

Then again another section of the community anticipated 
some fun ” as the result of the Senator’s motion. It was 
known that he was somewhat out of touch with the 
government on several points, though himself a Conserva- 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR 


141 


tive, and that he was of an independent turn of 
mind, fond of his own opinions and very obdurate in 
maintaining them. It was whispered that disappointed 
ambition in regard to the Speakership had a good deal to 
do with the independent stand which he was now accustomed 
to assume. According to the slang of the day, he was said 
to be a “ kicker,” and young Duffy had been the means of 
fastening the title of Big Kicker upon him, by asserting at 
the club that he was after the title and position of the 
famous chief of the Kickaways who was known by that 
name — a title which was destined to stick to the Senator 
for a long period. 

The Senator's question about the alleged white maiden, 
too, had drawn widespread attention ; and it was even 
hinted that Viceroyalty itself was much interested in the 
outcome of this enquiry. 

Then the press, and more especially the opposition 
press, had been devoting much space to the matter. Natur- 
ally the most of the charges as to Indian mismanagement 
found vent in the latter quarter, and besides the desire to 
have such charges investigated, in the case of one band at 
least, and of having justice done to the aborigines, the 
opposition organs were glad, on general principles, to 
encourage an attack upon the administration and to foment 
strife among its supporters. Accordingly they rang the 
changes upon the Senator’s notice and predicted interesting 
developments. 

Lastly, the Senator’s wife had now become a factor in 
the social, if not the political, life of the Capital. The 
small receptions and afternoon teas which had been held in 
her rooms had drawn together not a few ladies and some 
gentlemen who had some grievances of more or less moment 
to themselves, for which they held the Government or 
some member thereof responsible, and who were ready to 
back anyone with pluck enough to stand up against the 
leaders of the party. They already looked upon Mrs. Wat- 
kins as a would-be leader or champion under whose banner 
they might range themselves, should she prove strong 
enough to justify it, and, although Mrs. Watkins herself 


142 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


said little about the Senator's proposed motion, and indeed 
had inward misgivings about it, her friends naturally asso- 
ciated her with it and concluded that her efforts would be 
put forth in her husband’s behalf. Mrs. Watkins could 
not of course have very well counteracted this impression 
had she even known of its existence, and she had already 
learned that the Senator was obstinate and that it would 
be useless for her to attempt to stay his actions, at present 
at all events, in a matter of this kind, even were her doubts 
sufficient to justify such interference. The lady of the 
opposition who had boasted of some influence with the 
Senator at the opening of the House, a certain Mrs. Harri- 
son, had not exercised it in the direction of a withdrawal 
of his motion. On the contrary she had caused Mr. Watkins 
to glow with satisfaction by an adroit reference to the 
notices he had given, when she met him one day, and had 
announced her intention to be present to hear his speech. 

All these causes contributing, it is not to be wondered 
at that there was, on the Tuesday fixed for the discussion 
of Senator Watkins’ motion, such a gathering as had not 
been seen in the Senate Chamber on the occasion of a 
debate for many a long day. The club had emptied itself, 
the rotunda of the Russell House was well nigh deserted, 
sleighload after sleighload of fashionable ladies and their 
escorts had been deposited at the main and private entrances 
to the Houses and were wending their way to the Senate. 
Swarms of civil servants had left their offices and bent their 
steps in the same direction. There was a thin House of Com- 
mons which would have evaporated entirely at one time had 
any member drawn attention to the want of a quorum. A 
French member held the floor and was treating the House 
to a long-winded speech in his mother tongue. Sir Hector 
Langevin sat listening and stoically held the fort. Other 
members of the Government came in and out, most of them 
much more interested in what was transpiring “ in another 
place ” than in the proceedings of their own Chamber. 
Even the Premier had gone out, and after adroitly dodging 
all the lobbyists in sight, had taken occasion to go round 
by the front entrance to the Senate Chamber. As he 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


143 


passed with jaunty step the marble columns of the front 
lobby of the Senate he paused a moment before the entrance 
doors. The door-keeper held open a door for him to enter, 
but Sir John, raising himself on tip-toe, contented himself 
with a glimpse over the intervening heads, at Senator 
Watkins, who was then on his feet, addressing the House, 
his face in such a glow that it seemed to shine even through 
the grey stubble of his beard. The Prime Minister took 
in the whole scene at a glance, himself almost unobserved 
save by the Speaker of the Senate who sat opposite on the 
canopied eminence of the throne and almost started as he 
recognized those well known features in so unaccustomed 
a place. That one glance sufficed, and the eminent onlooker 
smacked his lips and pursued his way, wearing his cus- 
tomary inscrutable look. Just a suspicion of a twinkle 
in the almost expressionless light eyes as he turned away 
and a more eloquent wag of the uncovered head with its 
mass of hair, as he disappeared down the lobby as jauntily 
as he came, might have afforded some slight clue to the 
experienced onlooker to the thoughts flitting through the 
active brain within. 

Inside the Chamber, Senator Watkins now had full 
swing. His voice was clear and his manner not wanting 
in a certain dignity. So his wife thought as she watched 
him from the gallery. He was fluent too, and there was 
no uncertainty in his mode of expression. ‘ He was 
obviously very much in earnest. He began with a 
brief reference to his trip to the Northwest. He had 
heard a good many rumors about the condition @f the 
Indian bands and he had taken the trouble to visit a 
number of them. Fortunately or unfortunately, those he 
had visited were, he had very good reason to believe, 
among the best cared for as ^vell as the most industrious of 
their race. He felt it his duty to say this, although he had 
seen some things which had not altogether pleased him. 
He had not had time or opportunity to visit the reserves 
of other less industrious, perhaps, and certainly less well 
eared for tribes. Among these were the Kickaway band, 
whose reserve lies along the Little Kicking River. He had 


144 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


had, however, the ^ood fortune to meet with a gentleman 
who had labored among them as a Christian minister 
for some time, a gentleman whose word was entitled to 
every credence, he believed, who was at present in the city, 
and whose evidence would be forthcoming, if a committee 
were appointed by the House to investigate the condition 
of this unfortunate Indian band. This reference to his 
chief witness by the Senator, who did not, however, men- 
tion his name, created some stir among a knot of clergy- 
men in the gallery, who at once began an animated con- 
versation in whispers among themselves.. The Senator 
proceeded to recount several of the charges of neglect, 
cruelty, and immorality which the evidence of this witness 
would, he believed, clearly establish. When he made 
reference to the fact of so pernicious a work as Robert Elles- 
mere being imported into the reserve, there was a per- 
ceptible snicker throughout the chamber, while the clergy- 
men even were observed to smile. The clever face of the 
government leader who had been listening with respectful 
attention, lit up for a moment with a broad smile, as he 
made a note on the paper before him. Mrs. Watkins 
winced at this as she watched the effect upon the vener- 
able heads, of varied baldness, of the Senators, who had 
been for the most part paying respectful attention, for the 
heads began to wag, and some whispered colloquies be- 
tween neighbors ensued, while some of the Senators who 
had been b^usy writing laid down their pens to find out 
what the fun was about, and having ascertained, indulged 
in more or less quiet laughter. Senator Watkins paid heed 
to none of this by play, however. He had his notebook 
in his hand, and he felt bound to exhaust it before sitting 
down. He must also roast the Government a little now 
that he had them in a tight place, both because he thought 
they deserved it, and also that he might force them to 
grant a committee. So the Senator indulged in some 
caustic remarks, while his gestures and his color grew 
more and more pronounced. The government leader smiled 
again, whereat the Senator grew more angry. It was all 
very well for them, he said, to be living on the fat of the 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


145 


land, carrying on the Government witli a high hand here, 
while the unfortunate red men were pitilessly let starve 
or feed upon rotten pork, and contract disease more hor- 
rible than death. Some murmurs of dissent arose, but the 
leader looked as imperturbable as ever, and even glanced 
around as if to rebuke those who would interrupt Senator 
Watkins. Presently the Senator, who had pretty well 
exhausted his subject, as well as himself, after having 
wandered several times into other topics, upon which he was 
not in unison with the Government, and having been many 
times re-called to the right path, by cries of “ question,” sat 
down amid some applause. 

The Speaker cast his eye over the chamber, but no one 
arose for a moment. Then the Government leader stood 
up, and in the smoothest and blandest of tones began to 
express the thanks, which he felt sure the House and the 
country would accord to the Honorable Mr. Watkins, for 
having brought this subject before their attention. 
They had every evidence that the subject of the 
Senator s motion had aroused interest — widespread interest 
— and the leader gave a rapid side glance at the gallery. 
The Government were most anxious that its wards, the 
Indians, should be treated with every consideration. They 
believed that they were. It was impossible, of course, 
where distances were so great, to be absolutely certain that 
every charge made against a Government agent was un- 
true, however great the confidence the Government had in 
their agents. There might be truth in some of the charges 
brought forward. It might not be a very serious matter 
if some of them were. Just how far the presence of a copy 
of Robert Ellesmere (the sound of laughter was here heard 
again) on an Indian reserve night injuriously affect the 
untutored red man, he was not prepared to say. There 
were others more capable of judging than he. But cer- 
tainly some of the charges, if true, were serious. The 
Government felt this. He had consulted the Superin- 
tendent-General. He had consulted his colleagues. The 
desire on all hands was that the fullest investigation 
should be had, with an anxious desire to do justice to the 


146 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


aborigines, whose demands, he might be allowed to say, 
were sometimes rather extravagant, sometimes even dis- 
honest, but who should, nevertheless, be treated with both 
firmness and consideration. The Government, while it had 
no knowledge or information which would lead them to 
believe the charges made to be true, were so anxious that 
no wrong should be done the Indian tribes on the one 
hand, or no unjust suspicion attp-ch to the Government 
officials on the other, that a xiommittee would be appointed 
to investigate the matters referred to. He presumed the 
same committee could inquire into the subject of the ques- 
tion of the white girl and report upon that also. It might 
be convenient to so far anticipate the honorable gentle- 
man’s question, as to which the Government could give no 
information at present, for the reason that they had none 
to give. The Government leader here paused and looked 
at Senator Watkins, who, now flushed with victory, nod- 
ded his assent and produced a paper, from which he read 
several names he had to propose for the committee. The 
leader suggested some additions and alterations. Finally 
the motion was declared carried, and the committee struck. 

The whole affair ended so quickly and quietly that 
many of the spectators gave a sigh of disappointment as 
they turned away. Senator Watkins, however, marched 
out into the lobby, with the air of a victorious general, or 
the air which such a one is popularly supposed to assume, 
and was soon receiving the congratulations of friends with 
gracious condescension. His eye was wandering about, 
however, in quest of the Kev. McWhirter, whom he had 
seen just before the house met, but who was just now, 
apparently, nowhere to be seen. His wife and Gertrude 
came out from the gallery just then, however, and he went 
up to meet them. 

“ Have got them rather treed this time !” he said, ad- 
dressing his wife, who did not look by any means as tri- 
umphant as he, as she replied with a laconic " I hope so.” 
She did not feel like saying more just then, for the Sena- 
tor’s lady friend, Mrs. Harrison, was beside her, and at 
once greeted the Senator. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR, 


147 


^ “ Ob,^ Senator, how well you acquitted yourself,” she 
said, “ of course you’ll be suspicious of compliments coming 
from me, but I must have the gratification of saying that 
my predictions with regard to you have so far come true 
— have they not ? I’m sure they have been acting atro- 
ciously, and I do hope you’ll show them up !” 

The Senator looked very gratified as he escorted the 
ladies to their sleigh. 

Gertrude said nothing. The scene in the handsome 
red-chamber had been very interesting to her, as her eyes 
had wandered over the assembly. She had caught sight of 
Hatfield who had come in with some of the members of the 
Commons. His face wore a half amused look for a time 
while his uncle was speaking. Then, again she thought he 
looked a trifle displeased or pained. Then their eyes had 
met and he bowed smilingly and shortly afterwards had 
disappeared. She thought the look of pain was rather on 
his uncle’s account than on hers, and she believed he was 
getting over his little disappointment of last week very 
satisfactorily. 

“ Allow me to congratulate you, Mrs. Watkins, on the 
Senator’s speech. He pitched in in first rate style, don’t 
you know !” Mrs. Watkins looked round and bowed 
somewhat stiffly to Mr. Duffy who had joined her and Ger- 
trude as they were moving away, the Senator and Mrs. 
Harrison, the lady of the opposition, preceding them. Mrs. 
Watkins was not inclined to encourage the attentions of a 
civil servant, even of one so socially distinguished as Mr. 
Duffy, so she merely acknowledged his remarks by an 
inclination of the head. “Just looked in to see the fun for 
a few minutes,” the young man continued, glancing at Ger- 
trude. “ Saw you and Miss Southcote and followed you 
out just to say this. Have Seen a lot of attacks on the 
Government in my time, but never saw a committee got so 
easily and nicely as the Senator did it, don’t you know. 
We civil servants can’t say much, you know, but I hope 
the Senator will follow it up. Lots of things ought 
to be raked over, you know. There comes my chief. 
Think I’ll have to say au revoir” saying which Mr. DuflTy 


14S 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


bowed, casting another side glance at Gertrude, of a slieeps- 
eye character, which she could not resist laughing at 

" Oh, Miss Southcote will never forgive me for that 
mishap at Rideau, I know. It wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t 
indeed 1” and Mr. Duffy was evidently struggling between 
a desire to vindicate himself and to escape the observation 
of his chief, who might consider the company he was in an 
indication of his disloyalty to the government. 

“ Oh, don’t distress yourself in the least, Mr. Duffy,” 
said Gertrude, still laughing. “ I’m sure no one bears you 
any ill will. Pray don’t sacrifice your country’s time if it 
is only to make so unnecessary an apology.” Mr. Duffy — 
a little flush suffusing his fresh blonde- whiskered face, 
glanced toward his approaching chief and hurried ofi* in the 
opposite direction. 

Meanwhile Mrs. Harrison was walking by the side of 
the Senator. 

‘‘You have been doing excellent service for your 
country, my dear Senator,” she said, “ I only hope you 
won’t stay your hand. The leaders are evidently alarmed, 
but no doubt count on your fldelity to party, and perhaps 
think you are not so much in earnest as you seem/’ 

“ Nevermore in earnest in my life!” exclaimed the Senator. 

“ Exactly so. No one who really understands you, 
could doubt that for a moment. That’s what you should 
impress upon them unmistakeably, if you would succeed. I 
hope you won’t mind my saying so, Mr. Watkins. I may 
not seem to you a disinterested adviser. Senator, but I am, 
nevertheless. It is not our fight you know, but I am none 
the less interested, as a friend of yours, I assure you. I 
have been watching the discussion with much interest, 
and no stone will be left unturned to make you draw back. 
I even fancy I saw a certain eminent face looking in at 
you this afternoon, when you were speaking,” here his fair 
companion whispered a word or two to the Senator, which 
caused him to start, and flush a deeper shade. “ I’m sure 
anyone who thinks you can be cajoled out of the line of 
duty, whether Grit or Tory, will be mistaken, however, 
my dear Senator,” she added. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


149 


Mr. Watkins looked more triumphant than ever when, 
having placed the ladies in their sleigh, he resumed his 
search for the Rev. McWhirter. 

Some half an hour or so later a group sat in the smok- 
ing-room of the Rideau Club, composed with one or two 
exceptions of the same gentleman who were present at the 
conversation recorded in a previous chapter. One of these 
exceptions was our friend Mr. Graham of Montreal. 

“ Positively the tamest affair you ever heard of,” ex- 
claimed the ex-minister addressing Graham. “ We had 
been promised a great sensation by Senator Watkins — a 
regular upheaval of that chamber of antiquities — the 
Senate ! To be sure I didn’t expect much. Knowing old 
Watkins so long as I have, I felt sure he would be in- 
capable of creating a great sensation. He managed to 
draw a big crowd together, and to get a committee to inves- 
tigate his Kickaway grievances. But you may be sure 
there’s a pitfall prepared for him somewhere, into which 
he’ll be sure to fall headforemost. I went up just to see 
how the old ladies would conduct themselves. Haven’t 
been there before for an age. Shan’t go again in a hurry, 
either,” he added, with a shake of the head, as he reached 
for his glass, and refreshed himself with a potation. 

“ Why not ? ” enquired one of the others. 

“Faugh ! ” exclaimed the ex-minister, contemptuously. 
It only made me think how the thing might have have 
done. If I had taken up that matter, I’d have kicked up 
fuss enough to raise a perfect bobbery, you may depend ! 
I wouldn’t have let it pass off with an oily reply from the 
leader, without a word of answer i*n it. -There is plenty 
of crookedness in that department, plenty of red tape to 
be untied, plenty of pilfering, plenty of cruelty, and worse 
— but old Watkins isn’t the man to get at it, and I’m 
afraid the Senate isn’t the place,” and the ex-minister 
looked around him with a look which said as plainly as 
words: “I’m the man who could do this thing properly.” 
As his hearers began to prick up their ears, he added, “ Of 
course I’m speaking only from hearsay. The Government 
don’t know anything about it, I daresay, or as much as I or 
old Watkins.” 


150 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


“ I hadn’t tho pleasure of hearing Mr. Watkins' speecli/' 
said Graham. “ I believe him to be an honest, well- 
meaning man, though, so far as ray means of judging him 
go. I haven’t been in the Senate Chamber for some 
years.” 

“ Think the thing ought to be done away with ?” queried 
the ex-minister. “You Imperial Federationists would 
hardly relish seeing old Watkins holding forth in the 
House of Lords, would you now ?” 

“I’m not aware that any Imperial Federationist has 
contemplated anything so fantastic in your eyes as that, 
or that we ever expect to see Lord Salisbury in our Senate 
either. The one would perhaps be as reasonable a proceed- 
ing as the other. I fear you are like many others who 
don’t want to understand the aim and object of Imperial 
Federation.” 

“Never saw anyone who did understand them !” 

“ That’s because you have been associating with other 
people who don’t want to understand,” said Graham, good 
humoredly. “ Those aims and objects may be summed up 
in three words : equal citizenship and co-operaiion. I for 
one should be sorry to see any interference with the 
legislative autonomy of any one member of an Imperial 
Federation by the other. We don’t w^ant to legislate for 
Great Britain nor to have Great Britain legislate for us, 
nor Australia for either of us — except in-so-far as matters 
of common Imperial concern may require to be dealt with 
by a council drawn from all parts of the empire, whether 
its numbers be large or small, and whether its decisions be 
final or merely advisbry, but backed by the weight of 
advice from a body representing the whole world-wide 
empire.” 

“ The greatest empire the ^world has ever seen. etc. !” 
put in the ex-minister, scofiingly. “ And do you suppose 
the Parliament of Great Britain — the present Imperial 
Parliament is going to play second fiddle to any such body 
as that ?” 

“ I can’t say. They have a pretty full orchestra of their 
Q\yn and plenty of tunes of their own to play, it seems to 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


151 


me, which they can probably play better without our 
interference. We don’t propose to brigade the bands, but 
why shouldn’t a few picked musicians from each be given 
the task of preparing the programme of truly National or 
Imperial anthems.” 

“ Fiddlesticks !” laughed the ex-minister. 

“ To drop the metaphor then,” said Graham, “ and re- 
turn to my first proposition. All we want is a recognized 
position in the great federated empire — whose greatness I’m 
glad to see you recognize — and mutual co-operation in defence, 
in commerce and matters of common concern generally. I 
have no fear but that Britain will ultimately see it to her 
interest and the interest of her race, as indeed to tliat of 
the world generally, to advance her sons into a working 
partnership. I’m sure you’ll admit that she’ll find these 
sons— the 'auxiliary kingdoms,’ Sir John once called 
them — worthy partners in her future glory. ” 

" Dreams, idle dreams, I fear, my dear Graham. But 
you’ve strayed away from our Senate into the clouds. 
What would you propose to do with this excrescence on the 
body politic ? It is becoming venerable if not venerated, 
and may develop some of the strength of root as well as 
the rottenness of age. Won’t it be a hindrance to your pet 
scheme ?” 

“Not at all,” replied the Montreal man. “I’ve already 
explained that our legislative automony is to be preserved. 
That of cour,-e need not prevent our reforming or abolish- 
ing, if need be, any part of our own internal machinery we 
may desire to. I see you’ve got a hobby as well as I, and 
now that I’ve come down from what you call the clouds 
I’m willing to give my ideas for what they are worth with 
regard to that narrower subject as well. Our Senate has 
done some service to the St^te, but no doubt it might be 
improved. What it requires is more intellect.” 

“ More what ?” demanded one of the commons mem- 
bers, laying down his newspaper with the air of one who 
had detected the scent of a novelty. 

“Hello, my dear Senator, come in,” called the ex- 
minister to a junior, but portly, member of the Senate, 


152 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


with a flower in his buttonhole, who at that moment 
looked in at the door ; " come in and hear the revolutionary 
proposal our friend Graham here is making for the re- 
suscitation of that venerable but decaying institution in 
which you cut no inconsiderable figure.” 

“ All right, what is it ?” demanded the portly but good 
matured Senator, as soon as he had been introduced to 
Graham. 

“ He proposes to import intellect into your House,” 
exclaimed the member who had laid down his paper to 
listen. “ Wouldn’t the Speaker leave the chair as if dyna- 
mite had been detected !” 

“ Come, come, Johnson,” said the Senator. “ One would 
suppose Mr. Graham was proposing to rob the Commons 
to enrich the Senate, which would be perhaps a risky pro- 
ceeding.” 

“ Oh, you would be safe enough from being translated 
to the Senate on that basis, Johnson, my boy,” said the ex- 
minister laughing. “ I owed you one, you know, my dear 
fellow,” he added, “ and besides you are keeping Graham 
from evolving his plan.” 

“ Ob, my plan is a very simple one,” said Graham. “ As 
I said, I think the Senate has been of service, and at all 
events we could hardly abolish a second chamber here, 
while such chambers still exist in half the provinces. 
Election by the people has been tried and discarded after 
trial, by the leaders of both parties. Election by the 
legislatures of the province which already occupy them- 
selves too much with Dominion matters and issues, would 
be worse. My plan, for the present, is merely that, present 
company excepted,” bowing to the Senator, “and also 
excepting the considerable body of able men in the Senate 
already, the rest of the material be gradually strengthened 
by the introduction from time to time of men of intellect, 
from all walks of life. Why should not some of the most 
eminent of our educationists, business men, retired judges, 
even clergymen, be from time to time drawn into the 
Senate. Would the presence of such a man, for instance, 
m Principal Grant of Kingston, notwithstanding his 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


153 


cloth, not be a distinct gain to the power of the chamber 
and at the same time increase the respect in which it is 
held by the people ? Perhaps the anti-clerical feeling and 
fear of being priest-ridden would be too strong to permit 
of appointments being made from the ranks of the minis- 
ters, even on a strictly non-sectarian and impartial plan. 
Something has already been done in the direction I indi- 
cate among the other classes, and the House has been 
strengthened in public estimation, at all events, but then 
again why should men be appointed only when age has 
already begun to weaken their intellectual powers ? 
Younger timber would strengthen the structure. — Now, you 
have heard what you have chosen to call my plan. It is 
by no means revolutionary, you see.” 

“ Well, Graham, my boy,” said the ex-minister, “if the 
thing has to be perpetuated, your plan is, perhaps, as good 
as any, and I think we’d better advise the Government to 
begin by putting you in the Senate to supervise the job 
of reorganization — but I say, isn’t that young Duffy out 
there, who carries the gossip of the town under his hat ? 
Perliaps he knows when Watkins’ Kick away Committee 
is to meet. Call him in and see if he can’t manage to have 
us smuggled in behind a door. Pd give a good deal for 
the privilege of attending before that committee. I say, 
Duffy, have you got anything to do with subpoening the 
witnesses for the Kickaway Committee ?” he said, address- 
ing Mr. Dully, who had entered the room. “ If so, I wish 
you would have me summoned. I’m sure what I know, 
or what I don’t know about the Kickaways would prove 
of value to the committee.” 

“ I hear the committee meets to-morrow morning,” 
answered Duffy, “ as the members haven’t much grist as 
yet from the Commons, and w^ant to get through this 
business and adjourn. I daresay if you apply to Senator 
Watkins he may be glad of your assistance, as one of the 
fellows told me he had spoken to him about the committee 
meeting, and he is looking higli and low for his chief wit- 
ness, whom, it seems, he can’t find.” 

“ Well, te]l then) to have me called,” said the cn- 


154 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


minister, rising from his seat, as the party prepared to 
disperse. “ IVe no doubt I’ll do as well, and I’d like to 
be there to see Watkins make an ass of himself/’ 


CHAPTER XVIL 

THE KICKAWAY COMMITTEE. 

Mr. Watkins stood in a quandary on the Sappers* bridge 
about ten o’clock on the following morning. He had, on 
the previous afternoon, consented to his committee being 
summoned for half-past ten o’clock this morning, and here 
it was ten o’clock and no McWhirter to be found. He had 
hunted the buildings for him the previous evening, had 
gone through library, reading-rooms and even restaurants, 
in search of him, though he almost passed the latter by, 
feeling that the reverend gentleman would not be likely 
to go to such a place. Yet the only trace got of anyone 
answering his description was there, as one of the attend- 
ants told him that a person tallying exactly with McWhir- 
ter in dress and appearance had had a glass of brandy 
there an hour or so before. He remembered him because 
of the “ pretty biggish horn ” which he had swallowed. 
The attendant couldn’t remember who had brought the 
gentleman there nor which way he had gone, and his 
sudden silence on the subject caused the Senator to think 
that the Rev. McWhirter had gone there, contrary to rules, 
alone, to have a solitary horn, and for the first time he 
began to have some misgivings about his chief witness. He 
recalled having once or twice observed a slight smell of 
brandy or something equally strong when speaking to him, 
though he had thought nothing of it at the time. What 
if his witness should get on a spree and disgrace not only 
his cloth and himself, but him, the Hon. Ezra Watkins, 
who had placed such confidence in him, as well ! The 
thought was horrible, and there arose in his mind a vision 
gf Mrs, Watkins and a recollection of her expressions of 


The CANADIAN SENATOB. 


165 


doubt about the man, and he determined to say nothing 
about the matter to her for the present. No doubt he 
would turn up in good time and all would be right. But 
he had not turned up at the hotel during the previous 
evening as the Senator had expected. So the latter had 
risen early and gone in quest of him. He had on a former 
occasion obtained the address of his boardiiig place, which 
was in Lower Town, and thither the Senator had this 
morning trudged, only to learn from the landlady that 
McWhirter had not returned the night before, that he had 
never had any luggage and even the small handbag he had 
carried when he came was gone from his room. The poor 
Frenchwoman was evidently very dubious as to whether 
“ M’sieur Mavirterre ” would ever return, and with tears in 
her eyes she assured the Senator that she had received no 
pay from him as yet, and she hoped the Senator would see 
that she got it. 

“But why in the name of goodness, my good womar, 
did you trust him ! He had plenty of money to pay you,’ 
said the Senator, looking at the little black-eyed woman 
rather fiercely, and thinking sorrowfully of his t •.» hun- 
dred dollars. 

She said her husband was an attendant of som- sort at 
the Parliament buildings, and when she was debating with 
herself as to whether she should not demand pay in advance, 
seeing the man had no luggage, her husband had told her 
that he had seen McWhirter in company with one of the 
leading Senators witli whom he was evidently on intimate 
terms. If monsieur were the Senator in question, surely he 
would see her paid. 

Mr. Watkins returned sick at heart, and now stood for 
a moment on the bridge looking down at the snow and ice 
as if expecting McWhirter to re-appear from that quarter. 
In reality he was debating with himself as to whether he 
should return to the hotel and inform his wife of his trouble 
or go direct to the committee room, where the committee 
would, before long, assemble. He had a presentiment that 
he would not get much sympathy from his wife, more 
especially, if she learned that the man had $200 more of 


156 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


his money and had not even paid the modest demands of his 
boarding-house keeper. To know that the man lodged in 
Lower Town would probably be enough for her. Mr. Wat- 
kins therefore concluded to go at once and face the com- 
mittee. It would be humiliating, after all his bold talk of 
yesterday, to be obliged to ask an adjournment because he 
was not prepared to prove his charges — and then other 
Senators seemed so anxious to get away. Would he be any 
better prepared to make good his charges after a week or 
two’s delay ? If McWhirter should not turn up this morn- 
ing he thought his best plan would be to make a frank 
statement of all the man had told him about the Kicka- 
ways, and ask an adjournment for the purpose of securing 
his attendance, at the same time acquainting the committee 
with the fact of his disappearance. 

When Mr. Watkins reached the committee room he 
found a dozen Senators assembled ready for work. Some 
fresh shaven and well starched, as to their linen, some 
shaggy, some bald, some stout and others thin, nearly all 
more or less gray-haired. The Senators sat and chatted in 
groups. There had been no divorce proceedings, and Mr. 
Watkins’ motion was as yet the most exciting episode of 
the session. The Government leader entered immediately 
after Mr. Watkins, and as soon as the roll had been called 
was at once elected chairman. 

A short discussion ensued as to the order of procedure. 
Unfortunately for Senator Watkins the other members of 
the committee seemed to be unanimously of opinion that 
all preliminaries should be dispensed with, and that he 
should proceed forthwith to make good his charges. When 
Mr. Watkins requested that his motion of the day before 
be read, and suggested that the inception of the enquiry 
did not rest with him, he was met with the objection that 
it would be useless to spend time inquiring into the con- 
dition of the Kickaways, until the grounds of complaint were 
formulated and the evidence as to them taken. The other 
Senators were evidently satisfied as to the conditions of the 
Indians, until some grievance were shewn to exist, and they 
began to suspect that Senator Watkins had been somewhat 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


157 


reckless, and that for some reason or other he did not wish 
to undertake to establish his charges. A vote was therefore 
forthwith taken, and the onus cast upon the Hon. Mr. 
Watkins. The clerk had no sooner recorded the vote than 
Mr. Watkins rose and made his statement. It was sub- 
stantially the same as that he made in the Senate the day 
before, though more circumstantial and in detail. He was 
interrupted by a call for “ proof.” He then informed the 
committee he relied for proof upon the Rev. Mr. McWhirter, 
a minister of the gospel, he believed, who had furnished 
him with the information just detailed, whom he had met 
on the train during his north-west tour, who had lived 
among the Kickaways and was yesterday in the city, but 
whose present whereabouts he had been unable to ascertain. 
He craved the indulgence of the committee and asked an 
adjournment in order that the Rev. Mr. McWhirter might 
be found and brought forward to give evidence. 

A shaking of the grey heads and an ominous pause 
ensued. The Senators were becoming impatient of delays 
and wanted to hear some evidence or, failing that, to get 
home as soon as possible. The chairman only looked placid 
and as smilingly imperturbable as ever. At length he said, 
in his customary bland tone, that there was another witness 
present, who had personal knowledge of the Kickaways, 
and if the Hon. Mr. Watkins could give no information as 
to the whereabouts of the witness he relied on so that he 
could be called, it might save time to hear the witness who 
was present, especially as he understood he did not wish to 
be detained longer than could be avoided in the capital. 
Senator Watkins’ eyes followed those of the chairman and 
some of the others toward the entrance door, near which 
he now observed Arthur Rashfellow standing. 

“ Will Mr. Rashfellow please come forward,” said the 
chairman. 

Arthur obeyed, while the eyes of Senator Watkins 
dilated with surprise, and those of the other members of 
the committee were bent upon the young man, some with 
curiosity, others with admiration of his fresh, frank, hand- 
some countenance. 


158 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


" Perhaps it would expedite matters,” said the chair- 
man, as soon as Arthur had been sworn, “if Mr. Rashfellow 
would narrate his own experiences, in his own way, among 
the Kickaways, and at the end, any member of the 
committee who desires may ask such questions of him as 
he may see fit.” 

This was assented to and Arthur, with a heightened 
color and one or two preliminary coughs of embarrassment, 
began to speak. 

“ Just tell us how you came to be among the Kickaways 
in your own way, you know,” said the chairman reassur- 

ingly. 

“ My house near Portage la Prairie was burned down 
in July last,” said Arthur glancing at Senator Watkins, 
and conscious of a lump rising in his throat. Then fixing 
his eyes again upon the chairman he went on determinedly 
to narrate his subsequent experiences. He had gone west, 
and not having any fixed plans, he had bethought himself 
of a friend he had known rather intimately in Winnipeg some 
years before, who had since become farm instructor to the 
Kickaway band, and was then living among them with his 
wife, whom he had married since they last met. As he 
was himself desirous of getting away from civilization, for 
the sake of sport, and other reasons — he determined to go 
to the Little Kicking River, see what the country was 
like, and, perhaps, renew his friendship with Mr. Dickson, 
the farm instructor. He had done so, and Mr. Dickson 
had received him most cordially and hospitably. Mr. 
Dickson’s wife, however was in very poor health, and he 
saw that the husband was greatly troubled about her. 
He was very anxious to take her away for a change of 
air, in the hope of restoring her health, and she, too, seemed 
equally anxious to go, except that she appeared to be 
greatly attached to some of the Indian women and chil- 
dren, whom she was instructing, and who evidently were 
equally attached to her. As he was himself a practical 
farmer, and was also glad to be of service to his friend in 
time of need, he offered to take Mr. Dickson’s place for a 
few months, providing the consent of the department could 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


159 


be obtained. Leave of absence was subsequently granted 
to the instructor and his wife to visit British Columbia, 
and he (witness) had remained in charge all through 
harvest and until the new year, when they returned, the 
lady much improved in health. 

Interrogated as to the condition of the Indians, Kash- 
fellow said it was much the same as that of other bands 
he had visited. The men were, as a general rule, lazy, and 
neglected their farm work if allowed to do so. He had 
managed to have the crops harvested in fair condition 
under all the circumstances, but only by dint of the greatest 
perseverance and the most careful oversight and even 
severity. They would neglect their crops and machinery, 
and everything else if they could manage to get off hunt- 
ing, or if they could get hold of liquor, which would, of 
course, put an end to work completely. In his opinion 
they were if anything, too well fed. The food was the 
same as that supplied to the mounted police, who were 
certainly not suffering. The machinery and cattle, too, 
were to a great extent wasted on them, as they neglected 
both, the machinery especially being abominably abused. 
Of course they expected all the latest appliances. Big 
Kicker had asked him if he couldn’t get a “ binder,” which 
would thresh the grain out as it went along and carry it 
on into store. He had had no difficulty about liquor, 
though Mr. Dickson had had a great deal. There had been 
a man on the reserve who was suspected of supplying 
liquor to some of the bucks, in exchange for furs and other 
things. He had managed to escape detection for a time, 
having come upon the reserve in the character of mission- 
ary (at least such he claimed to be), but as his true char- 
acter was fast becoming exposed, largely through the exer- 
tions of the priest who visited the reserve, coming from 
the mission further up the river, this man had suddenly 
departed shortly after he (Rashfellow) came there. 

During Arthur’s recital Senator Watkins had sat with 
his eyes fixed upon him, and when he mentioned the mys- 
terious missionary, and the suspicions concerning him, 
and his sudden departure, Mr. Watkins breath came 


160 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


quickly, and with a sudden gulping sensation^ he asked 
the witness if he knew the man’s name. 

“ McWhirter — the Rev. Mr. McWhirter he called himself. 
But I have been since informed that no such man holds 
any position in the church he claimed to represent, and I 
have every reason to believe the fellow an impostor.” As 
Arthur answered this, quite unconscious of the terrible 
blow he was inflicting upon Senato-r Watkins, on whose 
forehead he noticed however, that beads of per- 
spiration had formed — a gentle ripple of laughter 
passed round the room. The other members of the com- 
mittee had recognized the name which Senator Watkins 
has so lately given as that of his chief witness. Arthur 
however, had entered the room only the moment before he 
was called upon and had not heard Mr. Watkins mention 
McWhirter’s name. 

“ Describe the man’s appearance,” said Mr. Watkins. 

Arthur sketched briefly, from memory, the man’s 
appearance. It was sufl&ciently accurate to leave no 
doubt upon Senator Watkins’ mind. He leaned back 
resignedly in his chair with a sigh. 

A short stout gentleman had a question to put. Had 
Mr. Rashfellow seen any white children upon the reserve ? 

None but the children of the store-keeper, he said, and 
one other, which was certainly very fair, though apparent- 
ly the child of a half-breed woman, who had accompanied 
McWhirter to the reserve as a sort of housekeeper. In 
fact tlie child, he believed, was generally regarded as 
McWhirter’s. Both the woman and child had disappeared 
from the reserve shortly after McWhirter’s departure. 

A general shaking of grey heads followed this 
announcement. The Senators looked at one another, then 
at Mr. Watkins and then at the chairman, who seemed as 
imperturbable as ever. 

“ Any other question to be put to Mr. Rashfellow ? ” he 
asked. 

“Just one moment,” said Mr. Watkins. “Have you 
seen anything of Mr. McWhirter since you came to Ottawa, 
Mr. Rashfellow ? ” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


161 


Arthur replied in the negative, and was allowed to go. 

At that moment a telegram was placed in the hands of 
Mr. Watkins. He hastily opened it and read : 

Toronto, February 8th, 1887. 

If you still want me, send one hundred dollars through 
general post here. Alex. McWhirter. 

The Senator’s first impulse was to wire the chief of the 
Toronto police to watch the post-office and have the man 
who called for the required remittance arrested. On 
second thoughts, however he dismissed the idea. It was 
plain his $300 were gone, and he might be thankful that 
that , fact was not public property and that he had not 
been bitten more severely. This thought was gradually 
working itself through his rather heated brain, when he 
was roused by the chairman : 

** Well, Mr. Watkins ?” said that gentleman, blandly. 

Slowly the Senator arose. The ruddy color shewed 
itself through the short grey beard. His brow was moist, 
but his lip firm. 

“ It is plain I have been deceived by a base man,” he 
said simply, “and I suppose there is nothing further to be 
done, Mr. Chairman, but to report the evidence already 
taken.” 

“ And ask leave to sit again ?” suggested the chairman 

“Not necessary in any case” answered the Senator. 
“ though I may say at once, after what has taken place, I 
have no evidence to offer and regret having made a motion 
upon the statements of a scoundrel.” 

And so the labors of the Kickaway Committee came to 
an end. 

The reporters had not been admitted, but during the 
day the whole thing leaked out and the papers had each 
its humorous account of the result of Senator Watkins’ 
great attack upon the administration of the Indian Depart- 
ment, and the Senator had of course the satisfaction of 
reading in every paper he took up that no one had antici- 
pated any other result, though in some cases the suggestion 


162 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


was thrown out that in other hands perhaps the enquiry 
might have resulted differently. 

He made a clean breast of it all to his wife. He felt 
that he must have some confidante to whom he could pour 
out his overwrought feelings. 

“ What do you think of that ?” he asked as he finished 
the recital of MeWhirter’s duplicity. 

“ I think someone has made himself very ridiculous. I 
needn’t add the old saw as to the fool and his money/’ was 
the tart reply of Mrs. Watkins who felt the humiliation 
even more deeply than the Hon. Ezra Watkins himself. 


CHAPi’ER XVIII. 

ARTHUR SELECTS A BOOK. 

Arthur Rashfellow had come to the capital at the sug- 
gestion of his friend Dickson, the farm instructor on the 
Kickaway Reserve. The latter’s wife was still by no 
means strong, though the trip to British Columbia, to 
which Arthur had alluded in his evidence before the com- 
mittee, had done her an immense deal of good. Indeed so 
well did the climate of the Pacific slope agree with her 
that her husband became possessed with a strong desire to 
settle there permanently. While in British Columbia he 
had learned of an expected vacancy in the Government 
service there which he felt himself competent to fill and 
which, while it would afford about the same remuneration 
as he and his wife earned in their present positions, would 
secure for them a residence in that climate which had 
proved so beneficial to her, with, at the same time, a much 
easier and more comfortable life for her. On his return to 
the reserve he found that matters had been well managed 
by Arthur. in his absence, the usually complaining Indians 
tranquil and contented, the crops all secured in good con- 
dition, and Rashfellow himself quite satisfied with the life 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


163 


he had been leading and even evincing a desire for a con- 
tinuation of it. 

Under these circumstances it was natural that Mr. 
Dickson should have begun to turn over in his mind the 
possibility of his being able to obtain the position he 
coveted in British Columbia for his wife’s sake, and that 
he should at the same time have come to regard Arthur as 
the one who would best take his place on the Kickaway 
reserve. That the latter was unmarried was, he knew a 
drawback, but not an insuperable one he thought. For the 
storekeeper’s wife would be able to take his wife’s place in 
the school, and for that matter what was to prevent a good- 
looking fellow like Arthur having a wife of his own ? He, 
Dickson, could not of course take action in the matter, him- 
self — at least not directly, and while he was not without 
some influence at headquarters, he was one of those who 
believed that a man on the spot with a good address and a 
little influence was worth a dozen influential persons writ- 
ing from a distance to the seat of government the usual 
formal requests on behalf of a friend. He knew from past 
experience how easily the latter are put off*. How much 
easier it is for one in authority to pen a passable excuse 
and refusal, sitting in his office alone, with his correspon- 
dent at the other end of the Dominion, than to have the 
same excuse and refusal on the tip of his tongue when he 
is being plied with reasons for granting the same favor, 
asked by the petitioner in person or some other equally 
solicitous on his behalf ? He had heard Arthur say that 
his father and one of the ministers had been intimate in 
boyhood. Arthur’s appearance and manner were in them- 
selves a recommendation. Above all he seemed so attached 
to his present lonely life and so loth to leave it, that he be- 
lieved his young friend, if he took up the project at all, 
would throw his heart into it, for their mutual benefit. 
Accordingly he broached the project to Arthur, who at first 
refused to enter any region more civilized than the Kick- 
away reserve, but was at length induced to listen and then 
to consent to undertake the mission. Dickson offered to 
pay all expenses, but this Arthur would not agree to, and, as 


164 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


the enterprise was intended to be to the advantage of 
both, they finally agreed to divide the expense, and 
Arthur set out for Ottawa. "Remember that a good 
strong useful wife would be a great help,” Dickson had said 
at parting " and you had better bring one back with you.’* 
" Jack talks as if a wife were part of the necessary settler’s 
effects,” Mrs. Dickson added, but Arthur said nothing. 

And here he was at Ottawa He had, as we have seen, 
called upon his father’s old friend, and had been well enough 
received. This gentleman had asked him to dinner and 
had next morning taken him to one of his colleagues, the 
minister in whose department the British Columbia position 
was ; for Arthur’s first thought was to obtain this for his 
friend, caring much less as to his own fate. This minister, 
whom they visited, while Hatfield waited, as the reader will 
remember, had already received a number of letters from 
supporters in different quarters, written at the instigation 
of Mr. Dickson and forwarded so as to reach Ottawa about 
the time of Arthur’s arrival there. He was therefore to 
some extent prepared for Arthur’s request, and — while not 
definitely committing himself— had not been discouraging 
in his manner. Arthur had then been advised to wait be- 
fore pressing the other matter — his own appointment as 
farm instructor. His friend, the Hon. Mr. Sterling, had 
advised him to wait, promising to take him to the Superin- 
tendant-General of Indian Affairs — and he had waited. 
Then had come a summons to attend and give evidence be- 
fore the Kickaway Committee. 

He had gone before the committee and told what he 
knew without thinking much of the matter. He did not 
read the newspapers attentively, and had never been in 
the Senate, and therefore knew little and cared less about 
Senator Watkins’ motion and the sensation it had created. 
As has been said, he knew nothing of McWhirter’s stories 
or presence in the capital, and now, as he left the com- 
mittee room, his thoughts were already away from the 
committee and its proceedings. 

Here he had been for about a week, and apparently he 
had effected nothing. He had been courteously treated, 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR 


165 


and put off with vague excuses. Then his meeting with 
Gertrude had reopened the old wound afresh. He would 
have gone off at once after that, hut the prospect of secur- 
ing a home among the far-off Kickaways seemed so much 
the more attractive, according as his misery here increased, 
and that prospect alone had kept him. Now, however, his 
patience seemed about exhausted. He had called this very 
morning at the office of his friend, the Minister, and had 
been told he was engaged and would be for some time. 
He began to think his hopes had been in vain, and that he 
had as well go, he hardly knew where. He walked to- 
ward the corner of Sparks and Elgin Streets, and 
stopped at the door of the ticket office, uncertain whether 
to go in and secure a sleeping berth for the night train west. 
On second thoughts he would go first and buy a cheap 
edition of some book, which would, perhaps, serve to divert 
his thoughts until train time, and while away the time 
upon his journey to the unknown land. Accordingly he 
entered a stationers, and listlessly turned over the pages 
of some books lying upon the counter. A moment or two 
later he looked up as some one entered the shop door, to 
which his back was turned, and came up to the counter 
beside him. A sudden thrill passed through him as he 
looked up and met the soft, enquiring eyes of Gertrude. 
How beautiful she looked in her soft sealskins, which set 
off her clear complexion in a way Arthur thought he had 
never seen it set off before. Her cheeks had the bright 
glow which winter outdoor air gave them, and as she saw 
and recognized Arthur she started, and the color spread 
for an instant into a very pretty blush. He raised his 
cap and gazed at her. 

“ You here — Arthur !” she said, at first a little tremu- 
lously. Then observing the shopman’s eye upon her, she 
added in a matter of fact way, “ can you help me choose a 
book for my aunt ? She sent me to get one for her, hav- 
ing a slight headache herself. She generally patronizes 
the Parliamentary library, but could not trust me to go so 
far to-day.” 


166 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


same channel,” he answered. How would this suit ?” 
and he picked up a copy of Cooper’s Prairie. 

Gertrude answered without looking up. “I’m afraid 
your tastes do difter on that subject.” She longed to add 
that her own had undergone some change, but she could 
only bring herself to say “ Love of the prairie is, I should 
think, something of an acquired taste. I think the prairie 
flowers and the fresh free air delightful. I think I shall 
take her this book of Max O’Rell’s, John Ball and His 
Daughters. Are you looking for a book too ?” 

“Yes, and I think this will do,” he answered gloomily, 
picking up one on which the title Dark Days was printed 
in the blackest of characters — Hugh Conway’s well told 
story. 

“ That almost makes one shudder. Why not try some- 
thing more cheerful ?” she said, smiling upon him as if she 
were determined to force some sunshine into his eyes. He 
was not altogether impassive under her glance, though 
he clung to the book of his choice, throwing a coin upon 
the counter and following her to the door. Outside he 
hesitated, while she turned towards the West. 

“ I have another errand a little further on. Wont you 
come with me, Arthur? You know I have seen so little of 
you, and I do so want to hear about— about yourself, and 
what you have been doing.” 

He joined her at once and walked along by her side, 
but without a remark. 

“I’m sorry you would not relinquish that book. Though 
it may be more cheerful inside, it has a depressing look,” 
she went on, somewhat at a loss how to draw him out of 
the mood, so different from his old ways, which appeared 
to have settled upon him. 

“ Don’t you think ‘ Dark Days ’ appropriate for one who 
has gone through what I have? ” he answered. Then noticing 
the look of pain which came over her lovely face, he added, 
with something of his old cheerfulness, “ I have been among 
a dark race, the dusky Indians, of late, and had hoped to be 
able to return to them, but darker days still seem to have 
fallen upon me, and I was about to go and secure my Pull- 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


ler 


man berth and take myself off when I met you. The only 
difficulty was that I hardly knew where to go, though, I 
suppose, I should have pulled up in Toronto for a time.” 

She cast so sympathetic a glance at him as he said this, 
that he felt impelled to give her his confidence as of yore. 
Why, even though her love were to be dead to him, should 
he not now tell her of his project and its failure, and enjoy, 
if only for a moment, a little of the ready sympathy which 
had always been his when sought from her in bygone 
days. The injunction of his friend and patron to silence 
was surely now no longer binding, and even if it were, it is 
pretty certain he would have disregarded it, so potent was 
the influence of a sympathetic glance from the girl he still 
so truly loved. So it came about that in a few minutes he 
gave her a brief history of his life since they parted at the 
Portage, and told her the object of his visit to Ottawa, and 
of the hopelessness which at present possessed him. 

Oh do not give up, Arthur,” she said brightly, as he 
finished. “ I only wish it were in my power to do some- 
thing to further your object. Is there anything I can 
do ?” 

He shook his head. 

“ I fear the Senator has not much influence of that sort 
just now,” he said, “ and — ” the recollection of Hatfield 
caused him to suddenly break off. She noticed the cloud 
which came over his countenance and divined its meaning, 
but was determined not to be daunted by it. 

Presently she said, “ I have met a good many of the 
politicians, and ” 

“ Ah yes,” he broke in, ‘‘I know whom you are think* 
ing of — Mr. Hatfield — and I wouldn’t accept his aid — if I 
had to beg my bread for want of it ! ” 

“No Arthur,” she answered, firmly, “ I was not think- 
ing of Mr. Hatfield, whom I have not •exchanged five 
words with, for nearly a week past — and whom I certainly 
shall not apply to on your behalf.” 

She spoke in a slightly offended tone— then suddenly 
brightened again as she stood at the doorway of the shop 
to which she was going, but which they had passed and 


168 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


repassed half a dozen times, regardless of the cold, the 
passers by and all else, so absorbed had they been in this 
new-found confidence. 

“ I have made many acquaintances since I have been 
here and some perhaps I may and shall appeal to if you 
wish it, Arthur.” She looked at him wistfully, as she 
drew her gloved hand from her muff and held it out — for 
he had said he would not go into the shop. “We will talk 
of this further at the ball to-nlorrow night. I had 
thought of begging off from going, but shall go on purpose 
for this. Will you not come ? You must not think of 
going away now.” 

What could he do but promise, even though he felt he 
would be but playing the part of a moth hovering about 
the old flame. 

His step was lighter though as he walked along the 
street. What could she mean by saying she had not 
spoken five words to Hatfield for a week ? The thought 
elated him though he dared not let it take the shape of a 
definite hope. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

MADAME bureau’s BALL. 

The ball at Madame Bureau’s was one of the events of the 
session. There Grit and Tory, French and English, Senator 
and Commoner, Orangeman and Ultramontane, were ac- 
customed to meet once a year, for Madame Bureau was 
not narrow, in either a political or racial sense, in her 
hospitality. Mr. Blake, Sir Richard Cartwright or Mr. 
Laurier would equally with Sir John Macdonald, Sir Hec- 
tor Langevin, the late Senator Trudel or Dalton Mc- 
Carthy, be made welcome, should any or all of them 
choose to accept her invitation. And a sufficient number 
of distinguished guests to render the entertainments 
notable, and of young people to make them gay, were 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


169 


always present at her balls. The present event was no 
exception to the rule — cabinet ministers, judges, senators, 
and members of Parliament, with the fashionable world of 
the capital generally, were gathered at Madame Bureau’s 
to-night. Sleigh after sleigh drew up before her mansion, 
and left its quota of muffled fair ones and their escorts to 
swell the throng which already filled the spacious rooms 
and hallways comfortably. 

Among the later arrivals were Senator and Mrs. Wat- 
kins, Gertrude and Mr. Hatfield. No sooner had they 
paid their respects to their hostess, and, after a few mo- 
ments’ conversation, passed on, than Mr. and Mrs. and Miss 
Sterling, and Mr. Rashfellow were announced. Gertrude 
looked up as she heard the name of the latter, and saw at 
a glance that Arthur’s face wore a more radiant and happy 
expression than she had seen upon it in Ottawa as yet. 
Her heart leapt as she saw the change in his appearance, 
and in another instant a feeling of faintness seized her, as 
she saw that Miss Sterling leant upon his arm, and was 
conversing with him with a freedom and want of restraint 
which, in her anxious eyes, betokened a degree of intimacy 
extremely dangerous to her happiness. What if Arthur, 
despairing of her love, had found consolation, and perhaps 
happiness, in his newly-formed friendship with Miss Ster- 
ling ? Arthur, indeed, seemed to have found favor in the 
father’s eyes. He was a Minister of the Crown, possessing 
sufficient influence to place the young man on his feet 
again, and the young lady was handsome, kind-hearted 
and sympathetic. Assuming parents and daughter not 
averse to him, would it not be a wise and prudent thing — 
indeed, would Arthur not have been throwing away a 
great chance were he not to make love to the daughter 
and secure an alliance in every way so desirable ? These 
thoughts rushed through poor Gertrude’s mind like a 
whirlwind. She had seen the mother and daughter driv- 
ing Arthur about the town. She had first met him at 
their house. She knew the friendship which had existed 
between the father the young lady and Arthur’s father. 
Her aunt, it will be remembered, had first suggested the 


170 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


possibility of such an alliance. She had grown pale at the 
thought, which had now again so suddenly seized her, and 
she scarcely heard what Hatfield was saying, though re- 
plying hap-hazard and in monosyllables, when Arthur and 
Miss Sterling came up. The latter almost at once engaged 
in conversation with Mr. Hatfield, while Gertrude he 
stood face to face with Arthur. 

You bade me come and I am here, Miss Southcote,” he 
said, not coldly, but with a touch of the good-natured 
bantering manner she was accustomed to in old times. 

“ I am very glad to see that you have done as you were 
bid then, Arthur,” Gertrude returned in the same tone, 
smiling as she felt her spirits returning somewhat in spite 
of the proximity of Miss Sterling, whom in truth she had 
always liked. 

“ I hope you have a dance reserved for me then,” said 
Arthur. 

“ Oh dear, yes. We have just come and I am only as 
yet engaged for the next — with Mr. Hatfield — after which 
I am at your disposal, though in truth I don’t like dancing 
a great deal. I’m glad that programmes are not in vogue 
here — welcome innovation.” 

“ What we don’t dance we can sit out, I suppose,” he said. 

Hatfield having secured from Miss Sterling the promise 
of the next dance, now led Gertrude away just as Mr. 
Duffy and a number of other admiring swains were fore- 
gathering about them. A moment later she was bej^ond 
the reach of these latter, as she and Hatfield mingled with 
the throng of dancers. A few minutes after Hatfield com- 
plained of a return of the pain in his arm and togetlier 
they entered the conservatory and after admiring one or 
two of the blossoming plants sat down in one of the many 
double seats. 

“ It’s a little too soon for mo to begin this sort of thing,” 
he said, glancing at the ball-rooTn ancl stroking his lately 
disabled arm. I thought I had quite recovered but I find 
I haven’t.” 

“ One is very apt to think oneself' all right too soon. 
But you’ll get over this I hope, in a short time.” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


171 


“ Oh, yes,” he said. “ I haven’t any anxiety about that. 
But the subsequent and more serious wound cannot be 
cured so easily— except in one way.” He had not intended 
saying anything of this sort when he left the dancing-room. 
But suddenly the thought had come to him that he might 
as well put an end to his suspense at once. The oppor- 
tunity was not unfavorable. The young lady had had a 
week to think over the subject and would surely have 
reconsidered the matter by this time, if she were going to 
reconsider it at all. He was not one of the patient waiting 
sort of people. He was prompt and business-like in his 
methods as a rule, and for some days past he had been 
thinking the matter over and had come to the conclusion 
that he must bring this affair to a definite termination. He 
should be sorely disappointed were a second attempt to win 
the fair girl futile, but better even that, he thought, than 
an indefinite period of anxious suspense, to end perhaps 
only in the same disappointment. Such a waiting race 
would render him completely miserable and mar his career 
he felt. Perhaps, too, he had formed a tolerably high 
estimate of the advantages of his position, his wealth and 
his appearance in the eyes of the fair sex, and presumably 
in Gertrude’s as well as others whose appreciation of these 
advantages he had good reasons for suspecting. Had he 
taken counsel of Mrs. Watkins she migfit have advised a 
different course, but he had not consulted her. He was not 
a man to consult anyone, much less a lady, in an affair of 
this sort. He therefore suddenly determined to end the 
suspense if possible now. So he looked straight at Ger- 
trude as she sat at the end of the seat looking down and 
seeming not to hear his last remark. 

“ I need scarcely explain myself to you. Miss Southcote 
— Gertrude. I said when last we met before this evening, 
that I would not relinquish hope, without another trial. 
May I not hope that 3^ou have seen some reason to relent 
— to change your mind ? Forgive me if I am taking any 
unwarrantable liberty,” he added as she still remained 
silent, " but I fancied from what you said as to — as to 
another — that you were in no way tied.” 


172 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


Here he broke off as she still kept her eyes down. 
Then she slowly raised them and said, 

" I am tied — and yet not tied — my heart is tied, Mr. 
Hatfield, as I said a week ago, and cannot be loosened. I 
thank you for your goodness, for your generous ofier and 
regret — oh so much — that it cannot be as you wish.” 

“And the other fortunate man — ”he began involuntarily, 
and then checked himself. He had never sought from her, 
nor from anyone else, to find out who was the happy 
possessor of her heart, and would not now. He had no 
need to ask the question however. He had not observed 
that the music had ceased and then begun again. Now she 
looked up as Arthur, searching for her, came up, and the 
expression of joy and gladness which swept over her 
features at that instant told the tale and gave him the 
answer to his half-formed question. He abruptly got up 
and walked away as Arthur ofiered Gertrude his arm and 
claimed the dance. 

“jl’ra so glad you came, Arthur ” she said, and then 
stopped. 

“ I was afraid I had interrupted an interesting tete-a-tete, 
I almost turned away again when I saw you — but I came 
here feeling good-natured and as nearly happy as I ever 
feel now and I determined not to give way to bitterness 
again.” 

“ I m glad you did not. Let us get out of this ; I fancy 
the perfume of some plant is overpowering.” 

He led her to the ball-room and as he placed his arm 
about her and they moved off in the w^^ltz, all memory of 
Hatfield and the painful interview with him, fied as if by 
a ma^c touch and she felt only the happiness of being 
close to and held and guided by the strong arm of the man 
she loved. 

“Do let us find some quiet spot,” she said as they 
finished, “ where I can ask you about yourself — about your 
success in the object of your mission.” 

They soon found in the hallway above stairs the place 
they wanted. A quiet secluded seat behind a half drawn 
portiere, some large palms filling the rest of the alcove. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


173 


Now tell me, Arthur, please, how you have succeeded. 
Are you to have the position among the Indians you spoke 
of and she looked at him anxiously. 

“ No, I fear not. You see, as I told you yesterday, my 
being unmarried is a drawback. Mrs. Dickson has been 
most useful in the school and in teaching the Indian women 
many things. I haven’t a wife and it seems I’m doomed to 
live alone,’^and he sighed. 

^‘Do you know, Arthur, what came into my mind 
downstairs when you came in ? I thought perhaps you 
had been making love to Miss Sterling, and had not been 
unsuccessful.” 

^ Arthur laughed. “Do you think,” he said, “she would 
think twice of a poor beggar like me. I know she’s good 
and kind, but that would be too much to expect.” He 
shook his head and added — “ Besides, no one knows better 
than you, Gertie, that were she ever so willing, that would 
be impossible.” 

At the sound of her old familiar name from his lips, the 
tears started to her eyes. He held her hand now, and 
looked at her quietly, but not unkindly. 

“ Do you think, Arthur,” she said, looking up into his 
face and then down again at the carpet, “do you think I — 
could — teach the — the Indian women anything ? ” 

It was all out now, and she blushed at the thought of 
her boldness. 

“ Do you mean that you would care to try ? ” He had 
managed to steal one arm about her waist. He was in the 
seventh heaven of happiness now. 

“Yes, Arthur,” she whispered “ I am ready to go any- 
where — to do anything — if only I can be with you — ■ 
always.” His grasp tightened to the verge of an embrace. 
Her breath fanned his cheek. Then he kissed her lips. It 
was the sweet kiss of reconcilation, and betokened future 
unbroken happiness, both felt. As he released her, the 
half quizzical look she had noticed downstairs was in his 
eyes. 

“ Yes,” he said, musingly, “ the Indian women are sadly 
lacking in musical culture. You might teach them that. 


174 


THE CANADIAN SENATOK. 


Bat do you know, clearest, there isn’t such a thing as a 
piano on the whole Kickaway reserve ! ” 

“ Oh, now you are making fun of me, and punishing 
me for my heartlessness ! ” and the selfish thoughts she 
had indulged in on the bank of the Sault Ste. Marie lock 
came vividly before her. 

He at once melted, and said, “ No, darling, I never really 
thought you heartless, and, I suppose I may tell you that, 
though I am not to be instructor to the Kickaways, I am 
to have a position in the department here. Dickson is to 
go to British Columbia and very glad I am of that. But the 
government either thought I would be wasted on the 
reserve, or the instructorship would be wasted on me. 
But I am to go into harness at a fair salary here, and my 
friend, Mr. Sterling, tells me I am sure of promotion. He 
has been very kind to me and has really managed the whole 
business with the other departments. I gave evidence 
before Mr. Watkins’ committee, and that, it seems, hasn’t 
done me any harm, whatever effect it may have had 
upon the Senator; though I had no idea of advancing 
my fortunes at the time, and simply told what I 
knew — ^no one, I am happy to say, suggesting anything else. 
But it seems governments are gratefnl for even small 
favors, and I suppose that, coupled with Mr. Sterling’s 
interest in me, has secured me my position. When I got to 
my room after leaving you yesterday I found a note from 
Mr. Sterling asking me to see him at once, and when I 
went he asked me some questions, which someway led to 
my making a complete confession to him about you, and 
that seemed to help, too, and to-day he sent for me, and told 
me the matter was all arranged, and dismissed me with an 
invitation to dinner, and to accompany them to the ball 
this evening. So now you have the whole story, darling, 
except that I have to get up a bothersome examination of 
some sort. What do you say ? Can you give me another 
chance — and do you think you can live in Ottawa as the 
wife of a poor civil servant ? You have yourself, you see, 
been to some extent — I think to a great extent — the cause 
of my good fortune I ” 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


175 


“ I almost think I would rather live on your farm, if you 
had another cottage there. Not that I have anything 
against Ottawa, but I should really like to try my hand at 
farming since my former folly and selfishness has found 
me out. Oh, Arthur, you cannot think how bitterly I 
have repented leaving you at Portage la Prairie last sum- 
mer — the heartaches, the sleepless nights and all r 

His only reply was to draw her to his bosom, and kiss 
her once more as they stood preparatory to going down 
stairs, for the band had ceased playing for a time, and the 
loitering couples of whom they had had glimpses on the 
landing and stairway had disappeared, and they now guessed 
rightly that supper was going on. 

“ You say you thought I had been making love to Miss 
Sterling,” said Arthur, as they descended the stairs. “ I 
had much better reason to think Mr. Hatfield was making 
love to you.” 

“ Poor Mr. Hatfield. I’m sure I wish him all manner 
of happiness. He has suffered enough on my account. 
You heard of our accident ? I hope he will secure a good 
wife who will keep him from toboggan slides in future.” 

When they reached the supper room, Gertrude found 
her aunt seated beside Mr. Sterling, while Mr. Watkins was 
in attendance upon Mrs. Sterling, and quite over- 
powering her with huge loads of trifle and jelly. Mrs. 
Watkins glanced searchingly at Gertrude, as she came up 
and gave Arthur a not ungracious greeting, as she knew 
that she was in the presence of his influential friend. 

“ What did you do to George, Gertrude ?” Mrs. Watkins 
asked. “ He has gone oft some time ago, complaining of his 
arm, saying he would walk home and positively refusing to 
wait for supper.” 

“Most unaccountable,” said Mr. Sterling, coming to 
Gertrude’s rescue, for which she gave him a grateful look. 
“Look here. Senator, your nephew must be getting up 
another great speech — preparing to crush his opponent of 
the other day ! — as he has actually turned his back upon 
these good things,” saying which the Minister quaffed his 
glass of champagne with apparent gusto. 


176 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


“ George is a studious fellow/* answered the Senator, 
who had often taken note of the blue books about his 
nephew’s room, though he had never caught him in the act 
of studying them deeply ; “ and he doesn’t care much for 
this sort of thing. It takes old fellows like ourselves to 
appreciate these things now-a-days. A little ice-cream, 
madam — here, I say, waiter, some ice-cream for Mrs. Ster- 
ling. Yes, as I was saying to Madame Bureau, only this 
evening, I believe that after all I enjoy this sort of thing 
more than all our proceedings in the Senate.” 

“ And what did she say ?” asked Mrs. Sterling, rather 
amused. 

“ She said * perhaps this sort of thing was the most 
profitable amusement of the two.* I doubt it, madam. I 
doubt it, indeed — but then I must say it’s pleasant !’* and 
the Senator bustled off to have another passage with the 
lively hostess. 

Another waltz Arthur and Gertrude managed to snatch, 
despite the serious looks of her aunt, who was troubled at 
the turn affairs among the young people seemed to have 
taken, though she did not care to manifest it too plainly. 
It was the most delicious and happy dance these two had 
ever known. It was happiness enough for Gertrude to 
know that she had confessed her own former heartlessness 
and her unalterable devotion to her first love. She had 
never doubted his love for her, though she had been fearful 
as to what her selfish (as she now regarded it) conduct 
might lead him into. Now that she had put herself right 
she was content to live or die — to go to the ends of the 
earth with him, or wait for years until he should make a 
home for her here. To him the thought that he was still 
beloved by the one girl he cared for, after she had seen 
more of life, had been admired and sought after, was simple 
ecstasy. He even sympathised with her former reluctance 
to undertake the life he had before offered. He would now 
work, deny himself, do anything to give her the comforts 
she deserved and to deserve the love he was now assured 
had never altered. A glance from those soft eyes, a gentle 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 177 

pressure of the hand from out the sleigh at parting, sent 
him home the happiest man in Ottawa. 

« « • « « » 

B fore she slept Gertrude told her aunt her whole 
heart s story. She spoke so clearly and unfalteringly of 
her love now that Mrs. Watkins’ objections were, at least, 
subdued into silence. Gertrude, as has been said, was 
fond of her aunt, and liked to have her good opinion, and 
Mrs. Watkins knew it. But she now recognized that her 
niece’s love for Arthur was too strong for any counter in- 
fluence from her, and she submitted with as good a grace 
as possible under the circumstances. She thought, with a 
sigh, of Gertrude’s infatuation and folly, but she would 
make no further attempt to counteract them. This she 
told her brother in a letter written to him next day. 


CHAPTER XX. 

CONCLUSION. 

Arthur and Gertrude are happy now in their modest 
home at the capital. Their happiness suffices for them, 
though their house is small. Arthur, since entering the 
Civil Service, has had several advances. He has his boat, 
which they can step into on the river within a stone’s 
throw of his house, and in it they often make extensive 
trips upon that noble stream. Their beautiful little daugh- 
ter is usually a participant in these trips — though not 
always in the walks by land which they often take. 
Gertrude has grown even more beautiful — in the eyes of 
her husband, at all events — than when the reader last 
heard of her. She cares not for the gaieties of the session, 
though she has not completely left off going out into 
society She thinks, however, now only of Arthur’s and 
their child’s happiness, and loves best the seasons when 
no Parliamentary session stirs the somewhat sluggish and 


178 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


uneventful life of the capital. She likes, especially on a 
quiet autumn afternoon, to walk with her little ^irl 
up to Parliament Hill, admire the flowers and foliage 
beds, gorgeous in their autumn dress, and seating 
herself where she can gaze out over that noble view of 
river, and valley, and mountain, dream away an hour until 
Arthur joins her, and — their child between them — they 
stroll homeward to a quiet dinner, to be followed by music 
— for the Senator’s wedding present to her was a Cana- 
dian upright piano — or perhaps in the earlier part of the 
season a row on the river. Frank, whose college career is 
almost completed, spends a few weeks with them every 
year — and a fine handsome young fellow he has grown to 
be — and rosy cheeked, good-hearted sister Katie has once 
accompanied him. As for Gertrude’s mother, she has grown 
much better in health. She was able to be at her daughter’s 
wedding, and from that day seems to have been growing 
stronger, and the thought comforts Gertrude greatly — 
while Mr. Southcote tells her laughingly, that by the 
time she gets Katie off her hands, she will be a stronger 
and heartier woman than ever. Gertrude says she still 
hopes Arthur may be able some day to rebuild Prairie 
Cottage — for he still bolds the farm — so that she may 
“vindicate herself,” as she expresses it, by living and 
working, for part of the year at any rate, on the farm. 

Arthur is the same gay-hearted affectionate fellow 
he was in the days of their earlier courtship, and 
his chief reports to the honorable Mr. Sterling, who 
occasionally enquires about his progress, that he has 
developed into a capital office man and that he wouldn’t be 
surprised if he should become a deputy head some day. 

Mr. Hatfield has made good the promise of his early 
parliamentary days, and is now a Cabinet Minister. He 
has once or twice dined at Rashfellow’s and has apparently 
recovered his disappointment at Gertrude’s refusal. He 
has not yet married, but it is hinted that his frequent fly- 
ing trips to Montreal will result in his bringing a hand- 
Kome bride to the capital ere long. Mr. Duffy reports that 
ehe will bring him an additional fortune in time, as well as 
further political influence. 


THE CANADIAN SENATOR. 


179 


Mr. Graham, occasionally when he is at Ottawa, drops 
in upon Arthur, who takes him off to lunch with his wife, 
and tell her how he helped him, (Arthur), “keep heart and 
try his luck again.” He says Graham has almost made an 
Imperial Federationist of him. 

Mrs. Watkins, since the Kickaway fiasco, has taken the 
Senator in hand, and has almost succeeded in making a 
practical politician and useful legislator of him. She knows 
that these are the best roles he can assume with any hope of 
preferment, and, being still ambitious, she does not despair of 
helping him some day into a more exalted position than that 
he as yet occupies. The Senator still privately hints at grave 
abuses in the administration of the Indian Department, but 
says that he will never make a positive assertion on the 
subject until he has time to go personally to all the 
reserves to judge for himself ; but as his wife insists that 
she must in such case go with him, but exhibits no anxiety 
to set out and in fact has privately made up her mind to 
temporize until he becomes disinclined — or too old — to go — 
it is safe to predict that he will make no more attacks 
upon that department from his place in the Senate. 

THE END. 


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Two artistic natures love in early youth, and are parted by circum- 
stances, one to make a career as a singer, the other as a painter. 

The early love with its effect upon the lives of the leading charac- 
ters forms the motive for the story, around which the minute details of 
the lives are woven with consummate skill. 

Cloth, gilt, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. American Authors’ Series. 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

P. O. Box 1992, 42 TO 150 Worth St., New York. 


JOSHUA. 

A BIBLICAL PICTURE, BY GEORG EBERS. 

Cloth, $i.oo; Paper, 50 Cents. 

This is a story of the exodus of the Hebrews from the 
land of the Pharoahs, told by a master of German fiction. 
The Bible would be better understood and read by a larger 
class of readers if there were more such books as Ebers’ 
“ Joshua ” and Wallace’s “ Ben Hur.” 

No writer of modern times possesses such wonderful power in pre- 
senting remote events in sacred and secular history, as this aged writer. 
— Chicago Graphic. 

The reader in quest of a new sensation cannot do better than devote 
an evening to the reading of “ Joshua.” His time will not be wasted. — 
Milwaukee Sentinel. 

This novel is the most valuable of the many which Ebers has 
written. — Tacoma Times. 

Ebers is one of those exact and laborious historical novelists who 
bring to their aid the treasures of history, the light of modern research 
and the knowledge of peace only to be found by actual observation. — 
Denver N‘ ws. 

IN GOD’S WAY. 

A NOVEL, BY BJORNSTJERNE BJORNSON. 

Cloth, ^i.oo; Paper, 50 Cents. 

Translated from the Norwegian by Elizabeth Carmichael, 

Bjornson’s novels are peculiar in style and marked by 
a Norwegian atmosphere which is at once unique and 
delightful, while possessing all the thrilling interest of the 
novel, “ In God’s Way ” has also the additional charm of 
an elevating moral tone for which the works of Bjornson 
are noted. 

" here is an impressiveness about the pages that produces a wonder- 
ful effect upon the reader. We have not read a more powerful book in 
a long time. — Memphis Commercial. 

There are descriptions which certainly belong to the best and 
cleverest things our literature ever produced. It would be difficult to 
find anything more tender, soft and refined. — London Athenceum. 

It is vigorous, terse and attractive in style, and strong in character 
drawing. — Literary World. 

The story is one of interest and eloquence both in studies of char- 
acter and descriptions. — The Critic. 

All should read this writer’s works, and whoever misses them 
nasses gems. — Western Banner^ 

For Sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of price, by the Publishers, 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY. 

SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

P. O. Box, 1992. 150 Worth Street, New York. 


THE TWO BROTHERS, 

(PIERRE ET JEAN.) 

Ey guy de MAUPASSANT. 

Translated from the French by Clara Bell. 

Cloth, $i.oo; Paper, 50 Cents, 

JUusirated with eight Jiite full page illustrations from the original French 

edition. 


It is a deeply moving story, and as perfect in form as any thing ever 
written in French prose.” — Boston Fost. 

It is a book that can be safely recommended to all lovers of 'good, 
light literature.” — Home Journal. 

“ The book is charming, full cf esprit, and reveals the master in the 
handling of a theme which, in other hands, would be hardly possible.” — 
Chicago Globe. 

“ This novel commands admiration by the exquisite simplicity of its 
style and its artistic treatment as well as its touching story.” — Springfield 
Republican. 


THE CHIEF JUSTICE, 

By KARL EMIL FRANZOS. 

Translated from the French by Miles Corbet. 

Cloth, $1.00; Paper, 50 Cents. 


“The ‘Chief Justice ’is a strong and admirable portrait, and it is 
to be hoped that other novels by the same author will soon be translated.” 
— Boston Herald. 

“Is a powerful and brilliant story, masterly in its delineation of 
character, and remarkable in the fine skill with which the stirring inci- 
dents are worked up to their tragic cdmax.” — Bosto7t Gazette. 

“The ‘Chief Justice ’ amply sustains the high opinion already 
formed of the author’s strength in fiction. It is, indeed, a vigorous 
and virile tale, whose eihos is mighty and profound.” — Christian Union. 

“ Mr. Gladstone, who has made the fortune of more than one book, 
reviewed it with the most enthusiastic praise, and critics everywhere 
bestowed the highest encomiums upon it.” — Albany Argus. 


THE LIGHT THAT FAILED 

By RUDYARD KIPLING 

Original edition, 190 pages, paper cover, . $ .25 

Revised and enlarged edition, 250 pages, cloth, gilt, 1.25 

I think the careful revision and arrangement of a novel by its 
author after he has read it in print, and can therefore consider it more 
maturely than when preparing his manuscript for serial publication is a 
tribute to his art, and not at all a derogation from it. — Louise C. Moul- 
ton in Boston herald. 

Apart from the question of its diverse endings, “ The Light That 
Failed” exhibits power, freshness, wonderful deecriptive talent and a 
rare stock of knowledge concerning out-of-the-way matters and things. 
— N. V. Tri'une. 

Whether in the original or the expanded form the work is a notable 
one. It is a'.l fresh with nothing hackneyed about it. The characters 
are all original, and in the enlarged edition there are some descriptions 
which will not soon be forgotten. — Tacoma Globe. 

His force and originality have taken the world by storm. “ The 
Light that Failed” is this brilliant author's first novel. It is his com. 
prehension of the inner and outer life of men, and his ability to portray 
both, is the secret of Kipling’s power. — Epoch. 

In “The Light that Failed” you have a great deal more than a 
padded short story. You have a carefully elaborated study cf two 
characters from childhood to mature years. There are long gaps 
between the crises of every life which can be briefly chronicled because 
they represent monotonous work and endurance. They are the very 
warp of life: It is the woof which Kipling gives in his stories. — Droch 
in Life. 

His power of bringing a scene vividly before the reader in a few 
brief sentences, is something remarkable. — Denver Republican. 

The vigor, the glow, the habit of acute observation, the salient 
features of Kipling's prose, appear here in a marked degree. — Philadel- 
phia Ledger. 

The Chicago News says of the description of the fight in the 
Soudan in Kipling’s novel, “ The Light that Failed,” that “Kipling iso 
the only writer, living or dead, who could have written it.” 

UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 

’ ■ . ■ ' . SUCCESSORS TO 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY 

P. O. Box 1992. 142 TO 150 Worth St., New York. 



SIR I 


ROSE 


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PERFUMES 


To secure tlie most delicate and refined perfume from the rose, 
it is necessary to discard the green central bulb. The above picture, 
reproduced from a photograph, shows a large number of girls and 
■women seated around tables piled high with roses, engaged in stripping 
off the leaves. 

Although this is a very tedious and expensive operation, yet 
Colgate & Co., each year, have millions of roses separately handled 
and stripped of their leaves, to obtain the most delicate odor for their 
unrivalled soaps and perfumes, the favorite of which is 


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